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Pride Month is when we celebrate and raise awareness of the Lesbian, Gay. Bisexual, Transgender and Queer community – commonly referred to as LGBTQ+. The ‘+’ sign stands for anyone in the community who does not fit under these rigid definitions, because Pride is all about being accepted for who you are.
Pride Month is in June every year, commemorating the anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York in 1969. These were a series of pro-LGBTQ+ protests sparked by a police raid on the Stonewall Inn gay bar. The Stonewall riots are considered the key event that helped us move towards LGBTQ+ rights, in the USA and worldwide. Pride Month is celebrated every year, meaning it can be a great reminder of how far LGBTQ+ rights have come since Stonewall, but also that equality and diversity still has long ways to go, in both the workplace and broader society.
The symbol of Pride is typically the rainbow, originally designed by the American artist Gilbert Baker. The rainbow is a powerful symbol showing the beauty of diverse people coming together. This is still the primary Pride flag today, though there are also many other flags and symbols with specific meanings related to Pride.
Pride is important in society because it celebrates and accepts our natural diversity, and the same goes for the workplace. Embracing diversity and equality creates a supportive work environment for your employees.
The LGBTQ+ community has faced prejudice, exclusion, and violence. While these problems are becoming less prevalent, it’s still important to show people that you are creating a safe workplace for all different types of people. Celebrating Pride opens up communication, which helps everyone in the company understand one another better. You might even find that if celebrating Pride paves the way for discussing other diversity and equality issues. Promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace creates a healthy, safe work environment where employees feel supported.
As well as simply building a great workplace culture and supporting the LGBTQ+ community, celebrating Pride sends an important message – a message that can become a valuable part of your employer branding. If you want to attract the best talent, you want people to know they will be safe and respected in their workplace. This is one aspect where user-generated videos can shine and show your stance on LGBTQ+ as a company.
There are lots of different ways you could celebrate Pride in your workplace. You don’t have to do anything big or showy. Often, smaller ways of celebrating Pride are likely to be better received, appearing more genuine and less about brand-promotion. Of course, you might have LGBTQ+ community members or allies who want to do a bigger show of support, so the most important thing is to tailor your Pride celebration to your workplace and listen to your team.
Here are some ideas of how to celebrate Pride at work. With remote working still common, you might want to include some celebrations for people in your office as well as remote workers, making sure that everyone feels included.
Pride Month is a great time to show how you embrace equality, diversity, and inclusivity in the workplace, but it’s not the only time when this matters. Equality and diversity should be embraced all year round.
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It is also very important to remember that, while Pride Month and rainbows can look like a big celebration, to a lot of people it is a very important time of the year, because it highlights the struggles they still face. That’s why any show of equality, diversity and inclusion needs to be genuine and heartfelt. Pride has become a buzzword in some sectors, and an insincere display of acceptance for Pride Month can actually harm your employer or customer-facing branding.
Even once June ends, look into the long-term ways you can champion diversity. A key part of this is to make sure that any diversity policies you have are followed and updated, when needed.
It’s a good idea to look intohow user-generated content can promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace. As well as sending a strong message, it’s a great way to get more people involved in creating supportive content to help everyone feel included, whether or not they are part of the LGBTQ+ community.
Pride is a major occasion around the world. It can be a celebration, as well as a time to assess how we approach and value the people around us, whatever their orientation or gender. Start planning your Pride celebrations and show your support for equality.
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