There is a moment in a woman’s career when you know you are in the right place at the right time. That moment for me was at the Texas State Capitol.

Jessica Tremblay
Jul 21, 2017 · 8 min read

I began my journey with IBM in March of 2014 and haven’t looked back since. Who knew that corporate software and working for a company as large as IBM would be my calling. But WOW, what a journey it has been.

Over the past three years, the personal growth that I’ve experienced has been exponential.

But one major component of IBM’s culture has really stood out to me — their dedication to diversity and inclusion.

The Rainbow 8-Bar

40 years ago, Gilbert Baker was asked by Harvey Milk to create a symbol for the gay rights movement. This 8 color rainbow flag became the highly recognized symbol for the LGBT community — each color representing a different aspect on humanity. IBM’s rebranding of the iconic 8-bar comes as a demonstration of the company’s continuing advocacy to advance and influence workplace inclusion policies that are consistent with basic human rights.

IBM Rainbow 8-Bar Logo

“The IBM 8-bar logo equals equality, in my mind. It should stand for the things we have always stood for: diversity, inclusion and unity. This isn’t just about LGBT rights, it’s about their supporters, our support of them, and our support of anyone else who doesn’t have a flag. That’s something we can all be proud of.”

— Todd Simons, IBM Brand

The rollout of the new logo has been embraced and celebrated by my teammates and I. We now have a symbol to represent not only our own dedication to diversity and inclusion, but to showcase IBM’s dedication to the world. IBM is a global company, after all. This is a global effort.

The Bathroom Bill

As a native, born n’ bred Texan, I have a personal investment in my home state. I grew up in Fort Worth, TX which is a steadily conservative part of Texas. I was incredibly lucky to be raised in an environment where I could express myself freely and openly. So, I grew up to appreciate other people’s values, whether or not they agreed with my own. This appreciation shows itself in me being able to empathize with others and is what makes me love the field of software design.

So, when I heard our Phil Gilbert, our GM of Design, was traveling to the Texas Capitol to speak against the bathroom bill, I wanted to get involved. I wanted to be there to represent my state and be an ally for those who couldn’t be present.

After a short email — literally though, I simply sent “Phil, I want to be involved. What can I do?” — I was granted an invitation to join the “task force” for the day to have a presence at the press conference.

The Briefing Room

At 10 a.m. Monday morning the troops assembled and were given our uniforms for the day: white t-shirts with the new rainbow 8-bar printed loud and proud on the front, and #inclusiveIBM on the back.

We were briefed on the activities planned for the day — we were to be prominent (standing on the front row) holding signs and joining forces with prominent business leaders who hold an investment in Texas and other members of the organization Keep Texas Open for Business.

The Ad

Published in the Monday edition of the Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle and the back page of The Austin American Statesman. I’ll just let the ad speak for itself in all its glory:

IBM’s Ad featuring the rainbow 8-bar logo

The Press Conference

It was going to be a hot day, but we were ready for war. Our group of 20 IBMers marched over to the capitol. We consisted of IBMers from all over the country. Before heading straight to the press conference, we took a moment to go inside the State Capitol. We admired the building, the architecture and took a few selfies in front of Governor Anne Richard’s Portrait.

Myself and Kev Bittner in front of Ann Richard’s Portrait.

It was time.

We shook hands with all the other business leaders who were there to unite and pledge their dedication to helping stop this bill, and then took our places.

The conference was kicked off by Jeff Mosley, CEO of The Texas Association of Business

Jeff Mosley — CEO of The Texas Association of Business

“For more than 95 years the TAB has been on the front lines of every issues impacted Texas Businesses. What effects business in Texas, effects every single one of us. These business issues impact our schools, our roads, our state budget, our quality of life. This morning we are here to present a group of business leaders and they are going to give you clear evidence that regulating bathrooms and changing rooms is really not necessary — that this poses enormous, long-term economic risk for the state of Texas. It literally challenges the miracle of Texas. We have empirical evidence, evidence from North Carolina, from Indiana, from other states that state sponsored discrimination has very severe economic consequences — consequences on talent, on tourism, on investment, on growth, and especially on small business. You’re going to hear from our speakers this morning how these consequences have already begun to unfold on Texas. Faced with this overwhelming risk, we have no choice but to face this legislation that introduces discrimination into Texas. We are asking our lawmakers to hear these united voices of the business community.”

Phil Gilbert was first up and spoke on behalf of IBM -

Phil Gilbert and Tropical Security at the Press Conference

“I’m here today on behalf of IBM and on behalf of the more than 10,000 Texan IBMers that we have employed across this state. I’m here to say that discriminatory legislation, like the so called “bathroom bill” is harmful to business. The bathroom bill would allow IBMers to be discriminated against. Our families, and our communities to be discriminated against. This bill goes squarely against long-standing IBM values of diversity and inclusion. It goes against long-standing Texas values where independence and grit are the meaningful measures of any person. It’s been these Texas values that have allowed us to bring thousands of talented people into this state. Because high-tech jobs today can literally be done anywhere, companies like IBM — both large and small — must figure out where to locate those jobs and those jobs must be located in places where people want to live and work. A bathroom bill, or any discriminatory legislation that targets the LGBT community hurts our ability to recruit and retain talent in Texas. But it’s not just recruiting and retention, our company is big and our team come from anywhere. On any given day, hundreds of thousands of IBMers travel through public airports, meet in public convention halls, sleep in hotels, and eat in restaurants. These bills negatively impact those jobs too. As I said, it is just bad for business.

On behalf of IBM, I thank you very much for your time here today. I also want to specifically thank speaker Joe Strauss, and chairman Byron Cook for standing strong against this issue, and we urge all of our citizens and all of our elected officials to stand strong with them. Reject these discriminatory acts. Such measures are wrong. They’re bad for business. They have no place in the 21st century, and they have no place in Texas.”

One by one, business leaders gave their perspective on why this bill was bad for business and bad for Texas. Newspapers and TV stations from all over the state were there to record and livestream the event.

IBMers at the press conference

After the press conference we took a moment to take in what had happened. What an inspiring group of people we were there with.

Phil took a moment to answer questions that the press had and even went back to the capitol later that day to give KXAN a deeper look into why this bill is bad for business and bad for IBM.

Why is IBM so invested in this piece of legislation?

IBM’s Austin Campus is the 2nd largest research campus with over 10,000 employees. This number doesn’t even take into account the number of IBMers who travel through Texas on a daily basis because this law will affect them if they reside in or are visiting Texas.

The company has also been actively hiring and recruiting in the area for a long time (the Austin Campus used to be the only set of buildings in North Austin). Long-standing employees, new hires and those interested in working for the company have all expressed their woes if this bill was signed into law.

IBM also has a deep investment in education, specifically P-TECH: A six-year high school model originally created in Brooklyn, NY which enables people without university degrees to gain education in latest/hottest areas of tech. Texas has already passed legislation to gain funding for the program, but IBM is seriously considering pulling its investment in the program if the bathroom bill is passed.

Response from the Community

The response from the IBM Austin office has been overwhelmingly positive. IBMers are proud to see their company standing up for diversity and inclusion. There have been multiple shares on social media of the press conference and responding coverage. For me, my family and friends are proud that I am “working for a company that cares. Such a great company, and such great people!”

In Conclusion

I know that I was there in support of IBM. I know that I am surrounding by good-hearted individuals. I know that in the end, we fought and we stood up for what we believed in.

#KeepTXOpen y’all.

Jessica Tremblay is a Software Designer at IBM. The above article is personal and does not necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.

Design at IBM

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Thanks to Maranda Bodas

    Jessica Tremblay

    Written by

    Front end developer and visual designer for @ibm. Fairy FEDmother at FED@IBM. Oh yeah, and I like cats 🐱🐱.

    Design at IBM

    Stories from the practice of design at IBM

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