As Pride season gets underway, it is important to reflect on the past year’s impacts on the LGBTQIA+ community. Around the world, for many LGBTQIA+ people, their society has become a lot harder of a place to thrive, whether that be due to the rolling back or the slowing down in progress when it comes to their rights, the prevalence of harmful narratives or even the criminalisation of their identities.
In 2023 the importance of visible Pride movements is higher than ever. Within the tough environment there are glimmers of hope with some countries bucking the trend and furthering the rights, equity and protections of their LGBTQ+ citizens. In times like these it’s important to also celebrate the small things that can make a difference to our community. Pride month marks 7 months since the creation of Awin’s global LGBTQIA+ employee resource group, Priders. In this short period of time, Priders has grown to include 70 members across 10 different Awin locations.
This collection of LGBTQIA+ Awinners and their allies has built a strong community where discussions on topics from Drag Race to drag bans can happen within a safe and supportive environment. Priders is being used to further DEI policy, for example the establishment of a private transgender safe space allowed discussion that has resulted in improvements in the implementation of pronouns within email signatures. In addition the group has helped build company wide discussion through education pieces and webinars around events like Transgender Day of Visibility, Aromantic Awareness, IDAHoBiT and more. With the Priders exec team learning from the wider community at events like Stonewall’s Workplace Conference, there’s plenty of ideas on how to further inclusion and create meaningful change for LGBTQIA+ people at or related to Awin.
This Pride season, Priders will celebrate at events like Berlin’s Christopher Street Day parade but will also raise awareness through a member led internal video series. The Priders Exec team expresses its gratitude to the members that make Priders what it is. We also use Pride month to reflect and refocus our efforts on furthering our work for our community.
