Fifty-three years ago, Los Angeles held the United States’ first officially permitted Pride parade. Doing so was no easy task, as the Los Angeles Police Commission made onerous demands of organizers that almost prevented the parade from being put on (until the American Civil Liberties Union took the Police Commission to court).
That first parade reportedly had 1,000 people in attendance, a far cry from the estimated 150,000 people at this year’s Pride parade, which included marchers from GoodRx. In addition to marching, GoodRx has also planned a month full of programming to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community and educate employees on LGBTQIA+ history, culture and experiences.
Another tech company with a presence in Los Angeles, Celonis, is preparing for Pride with a slate of internal events run by its LGBTQIA+ employee resource group. Events on the schedule include karaoke, drag shows and happy hours, along with an educational panel on trans inclusion and rights.
OK, but what happens when the month of June ends?
At both GoodRx and Celonis, support for LGBTQIA+ employees will continue. Continue reading to hear from each company about how they’ll be supporting their LGBTQIA+ employees in Pride Month and beyond.
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What activities is GoodRx coordinating for Pride Month?
During Pride Month, GoodRx is dedicated to fostering an inclusive environment by organizing activities that celebrate diversity and support our LGBTQIA+ and ally employees! We are thrilled to announce a series of events designed to engage and educate all our employees. Here are just a few of our initiatives.
We will participate again as a company in the LA Pride Parade and encourage all employees to march together. We are hosting a drag show and bingo night featuring local performers. In addition to fun and games, we will also conduct educational lunch-and-learn sessions covering topics like LGBTQIA+ history, queer health and healthcare, and workplace inclusivity. Our educational content offerings also include panel discussions hosted by our own LGBTQIA+ leaders and employees, who will share their personal experiences and insights.
Our LGBTQIA+ community resource group will organize events, providing an opportunity for employees to connect, network and build relationships. We will highlight books written by and for the queer community in our employee library, and we’ll celebrate LGBTQIA+ culture through coffee by creating a special menu with fun titles. Sashay latte, anyone?
We want employees to feel like they can bring their whole selves to work and have established anti-harassment policies that explicitly protect sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.”
How does GoodRx support and empower the LGBTQIA+ members of your team?
At GoodRx, we support and empower the LGBTQIA+ members of our team in various ways. In addition, we consistently ask for feedback and regularly improve our initiatives.
We want employees to feel like they can bring their whole selves to work and have established anti-harassment policies that explicitly protect sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. We have an active LGBTQIA+ CRG that serves as a dedicated platform for networking, support and advocacy. The CRG organizes events, provides resources and offers a space for open discussions and community building.
Our company offers inclusive healthcare benefits that cover gender-affirming treatments, including hormone therapy, fertility treatment and more. As a healthcare company, we strive to ensure that our employees have access to the medical support they need. Also, we have implemented systems and processes that allow employees to use their preferred name and pronouns across company communications, email systems and employee directories.
Beyond the month of June, what are some examples of ways GoodRx supports or advocates for the LGBTQIA+ community?
We continue to celebrate our LGBTQIA+ employees beyond the month of June through our lunch-and-learn sessions, CRG meetings and recognition of other days of LGBTQIA+ observation, such as National Coming Out Day. We also hold professional courses, such as our unconscious bias training, where moderators lead our employees in exercises to learn how we all can be better allies and colleagues. By understanding that we are intersectional human beings with a wide array of backgrounds, our employees are better equipped to engage in proactive, rather than reactive, education.
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What activities is Celonis coordinating for Pride Month?
As a global company with a global Pride network, Pride Month at Celonis really spans several months throughout the summer, with celebrations rolling into July for our European offices. Each of our local Pride@Celonis business resource group chapters hosts an annual pride event, including activities like happy hours, karaoke and drag shows.
This year, we are also continuing our tradition of inviting an external speaker for our Pride Month keynote talk and we are very excited to have a Trans 101 session led by a trans inclusion advocate. These keynotes are a chance to celebrate pride with the entire company, and we take this opportunity to raise awareness of issues facing the LGBTQIA+ community. This year, with the rapid increase of anti-LGBTQIA+ bills in the United States — particularly anti-trans bills — we are focusing on the theme of trans inclusion and trans rights.
As a global company with a global Pride network, Pride Month at Celonis really spans several months throughout the summer.”
How does Celonis support and empower the LGBTQIA+ members of your team?
Our Pride@Celonis BRG is strongly supported by the leadership team. Our co-CEO and founder, Bastian Nominacher, is the executive sponsor of Pride@Celonis and supports campaigns and initiatives globally that celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community and raise awareness of the issues it faces.
We ran our first pronouns campaign in 2021 to raise awareness about the importance of using inclusive language and being mindful of pronouns. We worked with our HR and IT teams to add pronouns fields to our HR and internal communications tools so that employees can share their pronouns with their colleagues online.
Last year, we held a panel in an all-hands call to highlight members of our leadership team who identify as LGBTQIA+. We heard stories about what it’s like being out and not out at work, and how the workplace has changed over the last 10 to 15 years for LGBTQIA+ professionals.
Finally, our best-in-class parental leave policy is built with LGBTQIA+ inclusion in mind. Celonis employees have access to the same parental benefits regardless of sex, gender expression or sexual orientation. Parenthood is for everyone and love has no limits!
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