Pride Month comes around every June, but this year feels more significant than the recent past. With nearly 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills moving through state legislatures, the threats against LGBTQ+ people are taking a material and emotional toll. Use this Pride Month as a moment to reinforce your company’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging with these employee engagement ideas that celebrate the LGBTQ+ community.
Still need more ideas? Check out SwagUp’s Workplace Guide for May 2023 for inspiration to celebrate the beginning of summer, plus download our Employee Engagement & Swag Calendar here.
What Is Pride Month?
Pride Month is celebrated every June in order to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York City. This month, we celebrate the LGBTQ+ community while also shedding light on the continued fight for equality and justice.
How Companies Can Celebrate Pride Month
Here are 11 ideas for educating your team about LGBTQ+ issues and celebrating the LGBTQ+ members of your community.
Choose an LGBTQ+ Charity to Support
Select a nonprofit that’s working to preserve human rights (such as the Human Rights Campaign or Family Equality) and focus your efforts for the month. Ideas include fundraising events or inviting your employees to make individual donations that the company will match.
Host Drag Queen Bingo
Celebrate LGBTQ+ culture and make a political statement in the process, by hosting a Drag Queen Bingo event for your team. These Zoom events, hosted by drag queens, bring employees together in a simple and entertaining game that anyone can play.
Organize a Pride Book Club
Select a book by an LGBTQ+ author (Bookclubs has a great list, as does Goodreads) that highlights a specific aspect of gay culture. Invite employees to read along and gather to discuss how the book affected them.
Pride Trivia
Online trivia is a fun and fruitful way to educate your team about the historical significance of an occasion while also creating camaraderie. You can find lots of trivia games online (like this Virtual LGTBQIA+ History and Culture Jeoparty) that incorporate pop culture and LGBTQ+ history.
Give a Prideful Gift
Allow your employees to show their support for the LGBTQ+ community with one of our special Pride swag packs. Encourage your team to wear their pride swag to any Pride Month events they attend in the office or outside of work.
SwagUp’s Pride Parade Swag Pack includes a Bella + Canvas T-shirt, a rainbow beads necklace, and a celebration confetti popper, plus a set of custom temporary tattoos.
Our Show the Love Swag Pack lets employees show off their pride on their desks or with their outfits. This pack includes a vintage dyed hat, holographic stickers, a Denik Eco Custom Classic Layflat Notebook, and a 4”x6” rainbow cloth flag.
Host a Watch Party
Similar to the book club idea, but with a movie or documentary. Choose a film that focuses on LGBTQ+ issues and host an in-person or virtual watch party, followed by a discussion with your team. (Mashable has a great list of essential LGBTQ+ films.)
Make an LGBTQ+ Playlist
Create a collaborative playlist for your team and invite members to add 1 to 5 of their favorite songs by LGBTQ+ artists. Use the playlist as the soundtrack for any in-person Pride events you host.
Sponsor a Local Parade
Especially if your team is more in-person than remote, choose a local Pride parade or celebration and sponsor a tent, float, or other aspect of the event.
Watch a Pride Parade Virtually
This June, many Pride parades will be broadcast online. Look for your local Pride parade to live-stream with your team, or find an event in another city that you can watch with your team while wearing your Pride swag.
Support an LGBTQ+ Business
Identify an LGBTQ+ business that you can support during the month of June. Ideas include gifting employees an item from an LGBTQ+ business or catering an event with food from a local LGBTQ+-owned business.
