- Published on
Celebrating Pride Month 2025
- Authors
- Name
- Alex Lee
- @alexjoelee
- Name
- Cassie Ambler
As Pride comes to an end for 2025 we want to take a moment to highlight some of the brilliant LGBTQ+ people through history that have contributed extensively to our collective advancement in the world of technology.
Peter Landin - Pioneered the connection between lambda calculus and programming, leading to innovations in functional programming and denotational semantics.
Born in Sheffield, England, Landing graduated from Clare College, Cambridge. He went on to invent the stack, environment, control, dump SECD machine and the ISWIM Programming language. He was also involved with creating international standards for programming and coding. An openly bisexual man, Landin was involved with the Gay Liberation front starting in the 1970s and used his role to speak out about the treatment and advancement of equal treatment for people of all sexual orientations.
Sally Ride - The first American woman to go to space and the youngest person ever at the time, Sally was an innovator and inspiration for women
Sally Ride was born in 1951 in Los Angeles, California. She went on to attend Stanford University and earn Bachelors of Science, Bachelors of Arts, Masters of Science, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees. Outside of her incredible contributions to the world of space travel, Sally Ride was an advocate for young girls and women to be involved in STEM fields. Although she was not openly out during her lifetime, Tam O'Shaughnessy was named as her partner of 27 years in her obituary. Sally often chose privacy for her personal life as such a public figure, but her legacy remains inspirational to young people breaking glass ceilings everywhere.