The LGBT Foundation, the world’s only token and blockchain initiative aimed at empowering the LGBT+ community, has appointed its first CEO, Sean Howell. Howell currently serves as President of Hornet, the premier gay social network, where he has spent the last six years helping the company grow its user base to 25 million and its editorial division to become the largest global LGBT+ newsroom. At Hornet, Howell also oversaw the company’s corporate responsibility efforts under Hornet Impact, organizing thousands of social justice and health related activations annually, all over the world.
The Foundation is a not-for-profit organization with the mission to utilize blockchain technology to achieve equal rights and acceptance for all members of the LGBT+ community worldwide. The Foundation is designed as an economic model to finance causes and organizations that advance the rights of the LGBT+ community with those causes being identified, voted upon, and supported by LGBT+ Foundation members, creating a powerful and autonomous funding mechanism built and controlled by the LGBT+ community itself, in perpetuity.
Prior to Hornet, Howell was a fellow of the World Affairs Council, as well as a trustee and President of the Young Professional International Network. He has helped hundreds of organizations leverage technology to expand their impact through his work with the MSM Global Forum along with serving on various nonprofit boards and committees including UNAIDS, E-CDC, PFLAG and Center for Public Health and Human Rights at Johns Hopkins University, and is a founding member of the UN Global Coalition for HIV Prevention and technical advisor to UNDPs and the World Bank LGBTI Index.
“I’m privileged to work with a talented team to execute on the exciting prospect to take cutting edge technology and make sure it benefits and empowers the LGBT+ community globally,” said Howell. “I see tremendous opportunity for blockchain to help solve problems of security and equality for LGBT+, especially in regions where either unjust laws and state sponsored homophobia exist.
“The immense opportunity for blockchain technology to have an impact on the lives of LGBT+ people around the world will get a huge boost from Sean’s appointment,” said Christof Wittig, President of the LGBT Foundation. “With his background building the largest LGBT+ media app in the world, he is uniquely positioned to make blockchain technology available to the LGBT+ community and further projects which will advance LGBT+ equality and acceptance.”
Part of the mission of the LGBT Foundation is to launch the LGBT Token, an LGBT+-specific token that will help protect the identities of its users while showcasing the global power of the pink economy. “Blockchain can help the LGBT community flex its economic muscle and fight rights abuses globally – from Chechnya to Uganda – while safeguarding the identity of members, said the charity behind a new digital initiative,” reported Reuters.
This idea has been well received by the crypto community looking for solid examples of new tokens working for good. “This kind of thoughtful use of technology, which not only caters to the needs of its community, but includes philanthropy from the ground up, undoubtedly offers a positive role model for other forms of social enterprise to build on,” said Diginomica.
The appointment of Howell as CEO means that Hornet is not just investing capital, but also personnel in its mission to bring equal rights and acceptance to every one of its members, with the help of blockchain.
The Foundation is carefully building technical technical and regulatory requirements before announcing its next steps with respect to implementation and public availability of the token to the 100 million users reached by the LGBT+ ecosystem with Hornet and other key partners. Once the platform is ready to launch, the Foundation will generate tokens that will be seeded to participating users and launch partners—so that they will be able to participate in the tokenized Pink Economy from day one.
