Amidst growing concern about the concept of “rainbow washing,” where companies merely use Pride as a marketing opportunity, truly committing to inclusivity and acceptance throughout the year is important. How you can celebrate Pride in a way that goes beyond surface-level support? By ensuring that your company’s commitment to inclusivity is not just a seasonal trend but a long-term value.
There’s a lot to consider when you set out to create a workplace culture that is genuinely inclusive and supportive of LGBTQIA+ employees, customers, and stakeholders. And whether you’re a small business or a multinational corporation, there’s always room to improve your internal communications practices and create a more supportive and inclusive work environment.
Ways to highlight Pride all year long:
Let’s explore some ways to celebrate Pride to reflect your shared values of acceptance, diversity, and equality.
- Spotlight the connection: Support queer and trans employees, partners, and customers who use your platform/product by highlighting their work, uplifting their causes, and ensuring a discrimination-free experience with your platform, products, and community.
- Be the change: Establish forward-thinking policies and processes to support your queer and trans employees, from health care to paid parental leave for gay couples. When designing these policies and processes, recognize current trends.
- Intersectional FTW: Integrate LGBTQ+ advocacy with other social identity-based advocacy efforts (e.g., race, gender, ability) for consistent and ongoing collaboration inside and outside of Pride month.
- Language matters: One practical and effective way to demonstrate inclusive behavior is by committing to continuously learning about and using inclusive language.
Ways to highlight Pride on your intranet:
Most company efforts made during Pride month are externally focused, but it’s important to not lose sight of your internal interactions in the process. Creating a safe environment where everyone can exist without worry is important. Here’s how to do that:
- Pronouns: Put together a program in the month of June to highlight the importance of using the correct pronouns. Encourage employees to share theirs in their intranet profiles, email signatures, zoom names, etc.
- Update your intranet theme: Create graphics, virtual backgrounds, and any other graphics in a rainbow palette. (Important: Only do this if it truly reflects your internal branding or you risk being called out as a fraud.)
- Sharing is caring: Share podcasts, movies, blogs, books, or tv shows that can elevate employees’ understanding of authenticity and safety in the workplace, queer workplace issues, or something entertaining! Crowdsource from your employees.
- Inclusion tools: Use content moderation to ensure your organization uses appropriate language.
And here are some voices to follow and amplify this month and every month!
Voices to follow:
Maceo can help you unlock the potential of your intranet and Employee Resource Group (ERG) sites. Whether you’re looking to attract new members, increase engagement, or optimize your sites from a technical and content perspective, Maceo Owens has got you covered.
Her work is focused on creating equitable spaces and creating scalable strategies to achieve psychological safety. She is an outspoken advocate for mental health, removing stigma around trauma, DEI and the ability to be “human at work.” She is passionate about facilitating hard conversations through storytelling, data and tough empathy.
Chris has created lots of “firsts” in a number of categories. He is the first transgender athlete to represent the United States in international competition, the first transgender athlete in the ESPN Body Issue, the first transgender athlete sponsored by Nike, and the first transgender athlete to qualify for the Olympic Trials in the gender they identify. Follow his journey on Instagram!
Lily Zheng (they/them) is a sought-after Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion speaker, strategist, and organizational consultant specializing in hands-on systemic change to turn positive intentions into positive outcomes for workplaces and everyone in them.
Jeffrey Marsh is an American writer, actor, artist, activist, and social media personality best known for making viral videos on Vine, Instagram, and TikTok. Marsh identifies as non-binary and addresses various topics through their content, including LGBT+ issues, mental health, and personal development.
Amplifying these and other voices in marginalized communities is a great way to show employees what you value, and that you value them. Be sure to showcase voices from within your company as well, even internally if they aren’t comfortable with public promotion. But if they are, employees are the best ambassadors for this cause! Happy Pride!
