Pride month takes place every June to commemorate the Stonewall riots, which occurred at the end of June 1969. The Stonewall riots, also known as the Stonewall uprising, are widely considered to constitute the most critical event that led to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBTQ+ rights in the United States. As a result, many pride events are held during this month to recognize the positive impact of LGBTQ+ people around the world.
Although in-person Pride celebrations are canceled due to COVID-19, many companies have taken it upon themselves to plan intentional virtual celebrations and programming to honor the importance of Pride and LGBTQ+ communities throughout June. To kick off Pride month, we’ve rounded up several other companies who are also virtually celebrating this year! See them listed below.
Glassdoor’s Virtual Pride Celebrations:
- Pride Kickoff: Virtual Pride Bingo (June 4th): Get ready to play some Bingo. This is not your grandma’s Bingo, instead, we will be paying homage to Drag Queen Bingo! So grab a Fabulous outfit, wig, shoes, and nails as the CATEGORY IS PRIDE!
- Watch & Discuss: The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (June 18th): Our Pride ERG invites you to grab some popcorn, a drink, and watch this beautiful award-winning documentary with us. After the movie, we will discuss thoughts on The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson.
- “Thank you for being a friend!” Golden Girls Trivia and Social Hour (June 26th): To close out the month of June, the Pride ERG wants to “Thank you for being a Friend”! We will host a trivia game and social hour honoring one of the most popular TV sitcoms within the LGBTQ+ community: The Golden Girls.
Other companies who are celebrating Pride virtually this year:
Lesbians Who Tech:
Lesbians Who Tech & Allies is hosting our first-ever (Not IRL) Pride Summit on June 22-26. This event is 100% virtual, free for our community, and we expect over 20,000 leaders from all over the world to join us as we continue to fight for LGBTQ equality, women’s equal pay, and push the tech sector toward more representation for people of color, women, trans and non-binary folks, and LGBTQ techies and leaders. Speakers include Angelica Ross, Beth Ford (Land O’ Lakes) Rose Mercardo (CEO Patagonia), Sharice Davis (US Congresswoman Kansas).
Salesforce:
Salesforce has risen to the unexpected challenge in this new COVID-19 world and has taken the opportunity to innovate our annual Pride programming by celebrating and bringing together the LGBTQ+ community and their allies into the digital world. From talks about the LGBTQ+ employee experience to fundraising for The Trevor Project, to drag queen bingo, to encouraging participation in their own cities’ virtual Pride efforts, Outforce, our Salesforce Employee Resource Group for allies in diversity of sexual orientation & gender identity, has come together globally under the theme, “Love Unites Us,” to shine light onto the fact that Pride is never canceled.
THEM:
Condé Nast’s LGBTQ+ brand THEM. will host Out Now Live, a celebration honoring Pride. Scheduled for Monday, June 22, the virtual event will include performances, uplifting speeches, storytelling, messages, and more from prominent members of the LGBTQ+ community and allies. The Out Now Live Virtual Pride Celebration will feature Aquaria, Bob the Drag Queen, Naomi Campbell, Wilson Cruz, Lee Daniels, Lea DeLaria, Asia Kate Dillon, Nyle DiMarco, Billy Eichner, Edward Enninful, Victor Garber, Whoopi Goldberg, Jeremy O. Harris, Hayley Kiyoko, Michael Kors, Kate Moennig, Cynthia Nixon, Antoni Porowksi, Zac Posen, Jordan Roth, Shangela, Raven Symoné, Tegan and Sara, Julio Torres, Sasha Velour, Evan Rachel Wood and more.
GSK:
GSK’s LGBT+ employee network group, Spectrum, in partnership with our Inclusion and diversity teams, has put together an amazing array of virtual activities that we are encouraging employees to support and get actively involved in. Activities internally include global webinar sessions to understand Pride better and the impact of COVID-19 on Pride.
Moody’s Corporation:
Moody’s Corporation will host a Pride Month Fireside Chat with senior leadership. Their New York offices plan to launch a virtual AIDS Walk, fundraising event, volunteering, and “table talks” highlighting the LGBTQ experience.
Citi:
With close to 200,000 colleagues in nearly 100 countries, Citi’s people reflect the remarkable range of cultures and perspectives of our clients and customers. Citi’s Global Pride Affinity and it’s 30 employee-led Network chapters are steadfast champions of LGBT+ communities around the globe. Through their efforts, many important milestones have been achieved in advancing Citi’s progressive advocacy and in achieving greater LGBT+ employee and community rights, benefits, and recognition.
Citi plans to launch the first-ever LGBTQ+ Leadership Development Program, “Show us your Pride” employee photo campaign, and global webinars with their external partner PFLAG.
Fidelity:
To honor their first Virtual Pride Month, Fidelity’s Employee Resource Group for the LGBTQ+ community and its allies, Pride, will be engaging, rallying, and celebrating with its members. In addition to the below global events, Pride’s regional chapters will provide localized events ranging from online meet and greets with external Pride organizations to roundtable discussions with local LGBTQ+ leaders and advocates.
- An article on Fidelity’s intranet site highlighting two visible allies in leadership positions at Fidelity, discussing why allyship is important to them and personal advice on becoming a stronger ally.
- A virtual art tour in partnership with their Corporate Art Ambassadors, highlighting queer artists and queer art. This provides an opportunity to learn about pieces in the Fidelity art collection and have an open discussion on why representation matters.
- A live stream event of Fidelity’s “Out and Proud” podcast series, which gives employees a platform to share their stories of coming out at the workplace. This episode will be a conversation with one of our Pride members on their experiences with intersectionality, allyship, queer representation, and visibility.
- A queer parenting virtual roundtable discussion in partnership with our Working Caregivers Group, highlighting experiences as queer parents and advice for raising inclusive allies and queer children.
- A video on Fidelity’s intranet site highlighting one of their senior leaders and his experiences being out in the workplace, and the importance of representation and advocacy.
HP:
HP has a long history of supporting the LGBTQ+ community, having started one of the first LGBTQ+ employee groups. HP has also been recognized with a 100 percent rating on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Index for many years. This year for Pride Month, HP’s campaign focus is “Raise Your Voice.” HP will launch the month with an all-employee email from Chief Diversity Officer Lesley Slaton Brown and a global webinar on inclusive leadership for all employees. Other offerings for employees include Pride related articles on the internal newsfeed, workshops on becoming an ally, and the importance of gender-inclusive language, social and networking virtual events like happy hours, trivia sessions, a virtual parade, a dance party, and more. Creating an inclusive work environment where every employee can Belong, Innovate and Grow is a pillar of HP’s corporate framework.
The Human Rights Campaign:
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) officially kicked off Pride Month by launching its HRC #PrideInside branding and toolkit, a series of resources to help HRC members, the LGBTQ community and its allies celebrate Pride. The toolkit shared via email and on HRC.org/pride, will help people celebrate as they attend local virtual Pride events being held across the country, ensuring that LGBTQ people still feel a sense of community even while socially distanced.
Amplify:
Amplify is an EdTech publishing company that creates high-quality core and supplemental curriculum, assessment, and intervention programs for students K-12. Currently, they serve five million students in all 50 states and are headquartered in DUMBO (Brooklyn, NY). Their PRIDE affinity group will host the following events.
- Pride Virtual Jeopardy: The categories will be based on important milestones for the LGBTQ+ community and the winner can choose their own LGBTQ charity for a donation to be made in their name. Source of donation funds.
- Rainbow Week: Amplify will dedicate a week in June where in order to honor what the pride flag represents employees will be encouraged to wear the colors of the flag (Monday: Red/Orange; Tuesday: yellow; Wednesday: Green; Thursday: Blue; Friday: Purple)
Grammarly:
To celebrate Pride Grammarly will be hosting a global LGBTQ+ workshop by Kelsey Pacha. Kelsey will go over sexuality versus gender, LGBTQ+ terminology, culture/generational difference in language, comparison of terms, best practices/how to be an ally in the workplace, and Q&A.