The Caucus Strategy: LGBTQ Inclusion Efforts across Mainstream STEM Professional Societies

• In Event: 40858 - The Politics of Science Today

Abstract

Over the past five decades, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) organizing within science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professions has achieved uneven inclusion of LGBTQ STEM professionals within various STEM fields. Beginning in the late 1970s, regional and then national groups of gay and lesbian STEM professionals organized to protect their jobs, network, gain visibility and educate the world about their contributions. One organization that has been a central node in this work has been the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals (NOGLSTP), now Out to Innovate, and as the LGBTQ acronym has expanded, so has the constituency of this organization. To expand their reach, NOGLSTP and other groups have developed strategies to broaden their influence within mainstream STEM professional societies of various disciplines. To analyze this process, this paper draws from Chapter 2 “The Caucus Strategy” from our forthcoming book, Out Doing Science: LGBTQ STEM Professionals and Inclusion in Neoliberal Times (Tom Waidzunas, Ethan Czuy Levine, and Brandon Fairchild, University of Massachusetts Press, May 2025).

This paper outlines the “caucus” strategy by which groups of LGBTQ and allied professionals meeting informally have gradually become institutionalized as formal caucuses within various societies over the years. I argue that over time, this kind of activism has transformed from advocacy rooted in LGBTQ standpoint epistemologies toward more assimilationist approaches catering to positivism and neoliberalism. As such, the caucus strategy has shifted from promoting lesbian and gay perspectives within STEM fields towards promoting general scientific and business advantages as a basis for inclusion. This has enabled the movement to gain traction in disciplines with more conservative epistemic and political cultures. This paper draws on interviews with key leaders of inclusion initiatives and archival research based on newsletters and organization documents.

Author

• Tom J. Waidzunas, Temple University