As Pride Month closes in, it’s sad to see companies too scared to celebrate it like they used to.
Let us inspire you to celebrate it this year with a small analysis of what pride means to us and our business. We’ll also share our guidelines on supporting pride.
Diversity is good for business
At RootNode.es, we see the world as a beautiful and diverse mix of people.
Our approach to diversity is our most prized tool:
- It makes our work unique, giving us the perspective to connect with our audience more deeply and helping our content stand out.
- It strengthens relationships with our clients. They include us in projects that they wouldn’t otherwise outsource.
- And finally, creates a dream work environment.
For us, it’s a continuous process of learning. Read more about our approach to diversity in this article.
As a company, celebrating pride is as much as standing up with the LGBTQ+ community, as it’s a retrospective.
The great thing about addressing diversity integrally is that making things good for one group ends up improving them for everyone. So, when we support pride, it’s yet another way of telling our customers: “We are a safe space for everyone, you don’t have to play pretend when working with us”.
This time of the year is also a milestone. While it has a celebratory part, where we pause to appreciate what we built over the last year, we also open ourselves to scrutiny with our public announcement and implicitly ask: Did we do well? How can we do better?
Understanding the numbers
Years of studies hint to 10% of the global population identifying themselves as part of the LGBTQ+ community. It’s hard to put a number, as most studies only focus on gays and lesbians.
In any case, it’s a big minority. In your daily life, you are constantly interacting with LGBTQ+ people, their friends, family, and allies.
So yes, as it’s a big demographic group, pride is a big celebration.
Pride is an introspective celebration
Pride started as a protest against police abuse, and at its core, it still keeps its activist roots.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community are still treated differently, and they live in a society that tolerates them (at best) but won’t accept them as equals. Understandably, it’s a community with higher suicide rates and other mental health issues.
While things improved globally for a while, the trend has reversed over the last decade. Hate crimes are on the rise in many countries, and legislation is being passed criminalizing the LGBTQ+ community.
During Pride, the community:
- Fights for equality.
- Try to cope with years of mistreatment.
- Celebrate that they are still alive.
- Mourn those lost to hate crimes, suicide, and overdoses.
This is what most people don’t get about pride, as the media focuses only on the celebratory side, without offering much context. Often mistaken for a nonsensical party, it is, in reality, a hard, emotional, and introspective celebration.
The guidelines we follow for celebrating Pride
The role of a company is to make money and provide jobs, not to engage in activism. Don’t mix roles, don’t overdo. It’s easy to come out as a hypocrite, and your support can fire back.
Your employees don’t want to be activists either. They just want to be seen, supported, and understood, so they can focus on their work without worrying about their mental health. It’s not grand gestures that fix this, but the thoughtful details to improve the day-to-day.
This support is needed now more than ever, with the current tendency in politics against diversity and the increase in hate crimes over the last few years.
Do:
- Post a support message.
- Change your logo for a month: Use the inclusive flag from 2021, that way you’ll cover a wider range of the community. Alternatively, rotate between several flags.
- Work on diversity throughout the whole year.
- Involve your LGBTQ+ employees.
- Offer the 28th off, so people can join the protests.
If you want comprehensive steps, we recommend PRISMA’s implementation guide “10 actions towards LGBTQIA+ equality in research centres and STEM environments”. PRISMA is a non-profit association that promotes LGBTQIA+ diversity and inclusivity in STEM.
Common mistakes when supporting pride
Don’t compromise
Don’t support only those bits you are comfortable with. For example, don’t focus on gays and lesbians while leaving out trans people and others.
By setting limits, you are both creating differences within the community and telling the LGBTQ+ community what’s acceptable and what’s not. That’s exactly what pride stands against.
Pride is messy and complex; embrace it, honor it, and learn from it.
Don’t say “love is love”
Hate crimes are rarely motivated by love, but rather because people look different. People aren’t defined by who they love; that’s for straight people whose goal in life is to create a family and raise children. The LGBTQ+ community just wants to be accepted for who they are.
Focus your message on that acceptance instead.
Don’t forget about the day-to-day.
Supporting pride as a company feels disingenuous if there isn’t a year-round commitment to the community.
For example, an LGBTQ+ worker may need to take “a friend” to the doctor without providing much explanation. That friend may not even be their partner. In LGBTQ+ communities, people often lack a family to rely on, so friends need to help each other.
Normalizing these situations is what solidifies your commitment and makes supporting pride an honest gesture.
Listen, learn, and continuously improve.
Conclusion
When done with honesty and respect, supporting pride builds a safe space around your business, attracting clients and fostering employee investment.
If you feel overwhelmed and don’t know where to start, remember, it’s simple: Embrace pride’s acceptance message, get involved with the community, and keep learning.
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