How We Plan on Celebrating Pride after June

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We strive to be a diverse team at Improbable Escapes. The diversity of skill, culture, ethnicity, orientation, age is what makes us a stronger team.

Out of a team of approximately 40, over half of our team identifies as queer.

June is a really important month for the LGBTQ+ community, as it commemorates the Stonewall riots from June 1969. This month also commemorates the years of struggle for civil rights, and the ongoing pursuit of equality under law for the queer community. 

We think it’s important to continue to celebrate Pride and keep fighting that ongoing fight for equality.

Here’s what some of our team had to say about how they plan on celebrating Pride after June, and how we as a company plan on continuing Pride.

 

 

I’ll do what I have always done, continue to educate friends and family who are ignorant, even if it makes me and them uncomfortable. The first step to a world where we can all express ourselves freely, is education. Educating others is not just a responsibility of those in the LGBTQ, but also one for our allies to undertake. – Ross

As allies, we want to make sure that our stance towards equality is loud and clear.

As someone who came out at 16, and again at 21 and then 23, I join spaces to support younger and closeted lgbtqa+ folks and let them know that  its okay if their labels and identities grow and change as they do. I also openly talk to my friends and family about under represented parts of the spectrum that I sm a part of like asexuality/aromanticism so that they become more understood and normalized. – Kae

We commit to creating a safe space for our team, including changes like giving the opportunity for employees to add pronouns to their nametags, and continuing changes like adding gender-neutral washrooms to our facilities.

I find it’s important to make every space I enter feel like a safe space for anyone to be who they are
And it’s important the identify the internalized beliefs that were passed down by ignorant generation and try to educate people who other wise are oblivious.
It’s important to make everyone feel loved no matter where they are in their life. – Bee

We commit to having an open dialogue with our team so that they can tell us how we can further provide a safe space.

My pride is a year-round thing, I don’t just stop being pansexual at the end of June! Love and celebrate one another every chance you get, because our differences are what makes us beautiful. – Dylan

We want to continue to celebrate our differences.

For me pride doesn’t end after June. I don’t stop being who I am after pride month, and I bring that unabashed self love everywhere I go. I feel like just by being myself I set an example for those in our community who maybe aren’t out yet or are still questioning. I know when I was younger and dealing with my own internalized struggles I looked up a LOT to people around me who were out, loud, and proud and I just want to be that person to someone else. – Payton

We want to help set an example for our community to stand openly as allies, as well as for our team.

And from one member of our team, who is an ally:

My part in pride month is as an ally, a friend, a supporter, and a voice for those who feel like they may not have one in times of trouble. I pride myself on speaking up for those who are being mistreated and that doesn’t start and end in June. It’s 365, 24/7 for me. It’s unfathomable to me, to think of someone hating, mistreating or abusing another person because of how they identify, who they love, or how they love. Love is love. And love will always win. – Adrie

We continuously try to educate ourselves on how to become stronger allies and what we can do to make our team feel more safe and welcome in our environment. Here are some other ways we hope to continue this growth and development:

  1. We continue to commit to using appropriate pronouns.

  2. Listen. We want to continue to listen to our team and our community to celebrate their successes and support them through their struggles.

  3. We vow to speak up against prejudice of any kind.

Join us in celebrating Pride year-round.