Be an Ally: LGBTQ Pride Month

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Pride Month takes place in the month of June across the world in celebration of self-identity, inclusivity and equality. Memorials are held during this month for those members of the community who have been lost to hate crimes or HIV/AIDS. The purpose of the commemorative month is to recognize the impact that LGBTQ individuals have had on history locally, nationally and internationally.

The History of Pride Month

It all started with the Stonewall Uprising in New York City on June 28, 1969, when police invaded the Stonewall Inn, a gay club located in Greenwich Village. This raid sparked riots and led to six days of protests and violent clashes with law enforcement in neighboring streets. The Stonewall riots served as a catalyst for the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world. Though the Stonewall Uprising didn’t start the gay rights movement, it was a galvanizing force for LGBTQ political activism, leading to numerous gay rights organizations, including the Gay Liberation Front, Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD (formerly Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), and PFLAG (formerly Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). On the one-year anniversary of the riots, thousands of people marched in the streets of Manhattan from the Stonewall Inn to Central Park in what was then called “Christopher Street Liberation Day,” America’s first gay pride parade. In 2016, then-President Barack Obama designated the site of the riots—Stonewall Inn, Christopher Park, and the surrounding streets and sidewalks—a national monument in recognition of the area’s contribution to gay rights.

What it Means to Be an Ally

Being an ally to the LGBTQ community can be described as empathy in action. Empathy is like a muscle that we can all develop by practicing, listening and learning. When empathy is present in any conversation and practiced regularly, we all feel safer and experience a greater sense of belonging. Understand what bias is and examine any particular ways it shows up in your relationships and choices. Understand that when we are stressed, empathy can wane. Action can be many things – think about microaffirmations that we can practice instead of microaggressions. Ask questions, be engaged with others and listen more than you talk. Voting, jury duty, parenting/family roles and leadership/volunteering all offer opportunities.

How Poston Communications Shows Our Support

As an LGBTQ-owned business, Pride Month is dear to our hearts as an agency. Poston Communications is a Certified LGBT Business Enterprise® (Certified LGBTBE®) by the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce. The NGLCC is the exclusive, third-party certification body that verifies that eligible businesses are majority-owned by LGBT individuals, and subsequently grants the Certified LGBTBE® designation to such businesses as part of its LGBT Supplier Diversity Initiative.

Throughout the month of June each year, we take action in support of the LGBTQ community. This year, we created a Poston Pride logo that incorporates the rainbow colors of the LGBTQ flag and displayed this logo on our website, social media channels and email signatures.

Additionally, outside of Pride Month, Poston supports the LGBTQ community in the work we do year-round. Our team was proud to have served as communications counsel to the litigation team in Bostock v. Clayton County, a landmark civil rights case that went before the United States Supreme Court in October 2019. On June 15, 2020, the High Court secured the rights of millions of Americans in holding that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on one’s sexual orientation and gender identity. Our team helped to address public concern around this case, securing more than 260 media placements and reaching an estimated total audience of more than 2.2 billion on the critical topic of LGBTQ workplace discrimination.

Because of our firm’s reputation as an ally of the LGBTQ community, we were also selected to serve as a strategic partner to the Orlando United Assistance Center (OUAC), a collaborative resource for hope and healing established in the immediate aftermath of the Pulse Nightclub tragedy on June 12, 2016. Despite the disturbing prevalence of such tragedies in the United States, little empirical evidence existed to build the necessary roadmap to secure necessary future resources for the immediate families of those who were taken at Pulse, survivors and the first responders there that night. We were honored to lead a strategic communications initiative to anticipate and better understand the long-term needs of those directly impacted by the Pulse tragedy and help maintain awareness for the OUAC’s services.

This month, we celebrate the LGBTQ community and reaffirm our commitment to being an ally.