14 ideas to celebrate Pride Month at work in 2023 virtually and in-person (ranked)
Pride Month is celebrated every June in the United States, and it offers an opportunity for workplaces across the nation to recognize the LGBTQ+ community’s achievements and acknowledge their struggles. Celebrating Pride Month at work can make a big difference in employees feeling safe and supported at work. It’s a great way for a company to show how it supports diversity and inclusion, and the team building events can greatly increase employee morale and employee engagement.
Here is a list of ways to celebrate Pride Month, including for remote teams who may be working from home.
What is Pride Month?
Pride Month happens every June in the United States. It commemorates the June 1969 Stonewall riots, which were a series of demonstrations that occurred at the Stonewall Inn in New York City. These riots were a tipping point for the LGBTQ+ movement in the United States. Today, Pride Month is a month that celebrates the LGBTQ+ community and honors their fight for equal rights.
How to support Pride Month at work (remote team ideas included!)
There are so many ways to support and celebrate Pride Month at work. This is a great way for to showcase the diversity and inclusion of your workplace culture. Below, we have ideas for how to celebrate virtually and in-person. The ideas include:
Recognize Pride Month at work
Host a virtual Pride Month trivia event
Host a Lunch and Learn about “what Pride Month means to me”
Host a (virtual) Pride Month parade
Sponsor a Pride Month parade
Sponsor a watch party and discussion for an LGBTQ+ movie
Create a Pride Month Zoom background
Hire an LGBTQ+ speaker
Donate to a LGBTQ+ non-profit organization
Host a drag Bingo event
Offer a volunteer day supporting an LGBTQ+ charity
Have a LGBTQ+ book club discussion
Host a karaoke night jamming out to LGBTQ+ musicians
Share meaningful Pride Month quotes
Read more about them below and how you can execute each event idea.
1. Recognize Pride Month at work
First and foremost, recognize the month! Your CEO or leader should either say a few words at a company All Hands acknowledging and celebrating the month or your leader can send out a thoughtful email. This shows that your company knows and cares about the historical significance of Pride Month and that you’re supportive of the community. Of course, this should just be the beginning and you should continue to celebrate Pride Month in other ways as well.
2. Host a virtual Pride Month trivia event
Trivia is the perfect way to celebrate Pride Month, as it is both educational and fun. Pride Month is steeped with historical significance, much of which many people are not familiar with. With trivia, your employees can become educated about the history of Pride Month, while also learning a lot of other fun facts about those in the LGBTQ+ community. Pride Month trivia can also be easily facilitated virtually and can be done in a team-based manner that also fosters team building and collaboration at the same time.
3. Host a Lunch and Learn about “what Pride Month means to me”
Offer up an opportunity for your employees to discuss “what Pride Month means to me”. This does not only have to include those who are part of the LGBTQ+ community, but it can also include allies. Lunch and Learns are a great way for someone to share their experience and Pride Month has likely touched many of your employees in a meaningful way. For remote or distributed teams, your company can offer food and beverage packages to help facilitate the Lunch and Learn. Note that this should be done on a voluntary basis only, and no employee should be asked to do it.
4. Host a (virtual) Pride Month parade
To host an online virtual Pride Month parade, ask your employees to dress up for the celebration. Create special Pride-themed tshirts that you can mail out to employees or you can ask them to go through their closets to pull out their most Pride-worthy outfit. They can even use props to make it even more exciting! Then, use Zoom to audio share an amazing Pride playlist. When everyone logs into the Zoom, you can have a Pride Parade dance-off or strut-off. This is also a great event for any team that has new members joining the team, as a virtual Pride Month parade is an amazing ice breaker event to create a fun and casual environment for people to get to know each other.
5. Sponsor a Pride Month parade
If your employees are located in the same city, look up when your city’s LGBTQ+ Pride Parade occurs. While not every city has one, most major cities do. If you have the budget, sponsor a float. This is an awesome way for your employees to not only have a great time but to also for your company to publicly show your support for the LGBTQ+ community. Even if you don’t have the budget to sponsor a float, you can always organize a way for your employees to all attend the Pride Parade together.
6. Sponsor a watch party and discussion for an LGBTQ+ movie
There are a lot of movies which have impacted the LGBTQ+ community. To host a virtual watch party, you can set up a stream and invite everyone to a Zoom. Give everyone a food budget to order dinner or snacks, and then get ready to settle in for a movie night. After the movie, you can host a discussion with thoughtful questions on how the movie made everyone feel or what people learned from the movie. Here are few movie suggestions for queer movies:
Call Me by Your Name
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Brokeback Mountain
Milk
The Kids Are All Right
Moonlight
Love, Simon
7. Create a Pride Month Zoom background
This is an amazing way to display your Pride virtually! Take your company’s current Zoom background and “Pride”-ify it by turning the background rainbow or turning the logo rainbow. Then, email it around to all of your employees and encourage them to use it as their background. They can do this for June, or even keep it up after June too!
8. Hire an LGBTQ+ speaker
There are tons of amazing LGBTQ speakers who can speak to what diversity and inclusion means. To hear firsthand from someone can be extremely impactful, and their stories and learnings have the potential to inspire and create awareness for your entire employee base, whether they are part of the LGBTQ community or not.
9. Donate to a LGBTQ+ non-profit organization
Put your money where your mouth is by donating to a non-profit organization that helps to better the lives of LGBTQ+ members. Look into whether there are any local organizations to donate to, or if your team is virtual and spread out across many different locations, there are also many national organizations such as The Trevor Project or Out and Equal who are doing great work. We also encourage you to search for an LGBTQ non-profit that helps marginalized members of the LGBTQ community specifically, such as the National Black Justice Coalition.
10. Host a drag Bingo event
Drag Bingo is hands down one of the most fun activities ever. The energy and pizzaz that a drag queen brings is incomparable to any other type of professional entertainer. Bingo is also an event that everyone can enjoy. It’s an easy activity to just relax and have a fun time with. Amp up the competition by adding a series of prizes for whoever hits Bingo!
11. Offer a volunteer day supporting an LGBTQ+ charity
Beyond just donating money, you can donate hours. Give your team a paid day off of work so that they can volunteer for an LGBTQ+ charity. For those with virtual teams, the Trevor Project is a great place to start. They’re looking for volunteers who can work the support line answering calls, chats, and texts, and this can be done from anywhere where there’s a private space.
12. Have a LGBTQ+ book club discussion
Reading is a great way to learn about a set of experiences, and there are a ton of great books about the LGBTQ+ experience. Choose a book, and you can let your employees expense their purchase of the book. Even better, you can encourage them to find a minority-owned local bookstore. Nominate an event leader to find a set of provoking and thoughtful questions, and set a date for everyone to meet up.
Here are a few suggestions for your Pride Month book club:
The Art of Showing Up: How to Be there for Yourself and Your People by Rachel Miller
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
We are Everywhere by Matthew Riemer and Leighton Brown
Tomorrow Will Be Different by Sarah McBride
Stonewall by Martin Duberman
Untamed by Glennon Doyle
All In by Billie Jean King, Johnette Howard and Maryanne Vollers
13. Host a karaoke night jamming out to LGBTQ+ musicians
Who doesn’t love a great party with some of our favorite Pride jams? You can easily host a karaoke night by putting together a playlist of songs sung by LGBTQ+ musicians. If you’re in-person, you can add to it by also adding a strut-off to the music, RuPaul style. For a virtual Pride Month karaoke night, have everyone get together on Zoom and use Zoom’s audio or video sharing capabilities. If someone’s vocals sound off, that’s what the mute function is for…
14. Share meaningful Pride Month quotes
You can use Pride Month as an opportunity to highlight meaningful Pride Month quotes. These sayings can help create a place of inclusivity and embrace equality. You can use your company’s social media to highlight these quotes, or share them in emails or meetings throughout the month of June.
Here are some of our favorites:
“Hope will never be silent.” - Harvey Milk
“No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.” - Alice Walker
“We are not actually equal – humanity – if we are not allowed to freely love one another.” - Lady Gaga
“Marriage is a language of love, equality, and inclusion.” - Evan Wolfson
“My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you.” - Audre Lorde
Who should celebrate Pride Month?
Pride Month can be celebrated by everyone, whether you are a member of the LGBTQ+ community or an ally! Allies are people who are not part of the LGBTQ+ community but who stand up for their rights and try and make the world a better place for them.
Why is celebrating Pride Month at work important?
Celebrating Pride Month at work is extremely important and can have a great impact on creating an environment that is friendly for everyone. It can make those who are part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other queer community feel seen and cared about. Public celebrations are especially important as a demonstration of support for your employees who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. This is key for creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace environment so that all employees feel safe. In addition to this, having an inclusive work environment can help greatly with employee retention, hiring, and overall morale. This creates a workplace where everyone can be their best self, resulting in a better functioning team.
What are ideas on how to celebrate Pride Month at work?
You can celebrate Pride Month at work in a variety of ways. Whether it’s by hosting an event, by donating to an organization, by raising awareness, pick an option that feels right for your company and your corporate culture. In this article, we’ve listed our favorites.
Separately, it’s important to note that you must be genuine in all actions that you take to celebrate Pride Month at work. If your company doesn’t have an equal healthcare policy or an inclusive environment all twelve months of the year, those should be evaluated first. Any actions taken to celebrate Pride Month only go so far if there’s no equality in the other months of the year.
Can you tell me what to do for Pride Month at work?
We’ve listed our favorite ideas. These span a variety of different types, from ideas for virtual teams to in-person teams to distributed teams, there’s sure to be something for everyone.
