Lesbians Who Tech is coming to Baltimore

Lyn Muldrow is a freelance developer whose entrance into the world of tech reads almost like a fairy tale — except instead of a fairy godmother, hard work has made her a prominent voice in the call for a more inclusive Baltimore tech community.

In 2007, then stay-at-home mom Muldrow found herself first venturing into tech through various “mom-focused” message boards. Using the graphic design skills she had picked up as a hobbyist, Muldrow found a list of clients, including other mothers whose businesses lacked a web presence, interested in her content marketing, web design and UX strategy.
“After a while, earning larger and larger business contracts along the way, I decided that I wanted to increase my business by adding web development to my skill set,” Muldrow said in an email interview.
So she uprooted her life in Baltimore, taking her two small children and only three suitcases with her to San Francisco to attend General Assembly’s coding boot camp for web development.
While attending the 12-week program, Muldrow was offered a position as a program manager and lead instructor for Hack the Hood, a six-week program teaching underserved youth web design in San Francisco. This and all the inspiring encounters Muldrow had in San Francisco fueled her mission to increase diversity in tech, especially back home in Baltimore.
Today, Muldrow, now 31, is leading the establishment of a Lesbians Who Tech chapter in Baltimore.

Are you a #lesbian in #technology ? There's a happy hour for that! Looking for a co-organizer for @lesbiantech Baltimore: hi@lynmuldrow.com

— Lyn Muldrow | @lynmuldrow@floss.social (@LynMuldrow) August 31, 2015

“I was introduced to Lesbians Who Tech via a Women Who Code newsletter,” said Muldrow. “I’ve personally attended and had a great time at a LWT happy hour in SF, and wanted to bring the fun and fellowship here to Baltimore.”
Lesbians Who Tech is a community of queer women in tech. With chapters in over 20 cities worldwide, the organization focuses on expanding the idea of who is in tech and providing opportunities for more visibility and access for women and lesbians.
Muldrow wants to help with the diversification of the tech networks and channels in Baltimore, many of which according to Muldrow, tend to be “highly male, white, cisgendered.”
“Baltimore is a city that is vibrant and alive with culture,” she said. “I wanted to bring more awareness to the presence of not only women and people of color in tech, but queer women of all shades as well.”