Pride Month

Recognize LGBTQ+ employees publicly and personally: How Pride Month is Celebrated

Employees who feel recognized are 45% less likely to leave within two years (O.C. Tanner Global Culture Report, 2023). Pride Month is a natural moment to make that recognition visible. A public shoutout, a newsletter spotlight, or a personal note from a manager signals that inclusion here is genuine.

Keep the language warm and specific, not corporate. The best recognition feels like it came from a person. Use your recognition platform to send personalized Pride Month messages, and make sure leadership participates too.

Send a Pride gift your team actually wants to receive

Generic recognition doesn’t land the same way personalized recognition does. Letting employees choose their own gift shows you see them as individuals, not just team members. Whether that’s a swag item, a snack box, or something for their home office, the choice belongs to them.

With Stadium, you can set up a Pride Month gift shop in minutes. Your team picks from 15,000+ products, and Stadium fulfills everything in 170+ countries. There are no minimums and no logistics to manage.

Host a learning moment your team will remember

A learning event does two things at once: it educates allies and shows LGBTQ+ employees their experience matters at your company. Consider a lunch-and-learn with an LGBTQ+ speaker, a panel discussion, or a documentary screening. Keep participation voluntary, not mandatory.

If an in-person event isn’t possible, an asynchronous option works just as well. Share a curated reading list, a documentary recommendation, or a message from leadership. The format matters less than the intention behind it.

Make your allyship visible beyond June

The risk of Pride Month at work is that it looks like a checkbox. Visible, lasting gestures change that. These small actions extend your support past the last day of June:

• Add pronouns to employee profiles in Slack, Teams, or your company directory
• Update email signatures with a Pride banner during June
• Feature LGBTQ+ voices in company content: blog posts, social media, and newsletters
• Donate to an LGBTQ+ nonprofit as a team

A Colorful Legacy: What is the history of Pride Month?

The United States has observed Pride Month for more than five decades. The 1969 Stonewall riots, five nights of protests in Manhattan, launched the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and the first Pride march followed exactly one year later (Library of Congress, 2024). Today, Pride events draw millions of participants across more than 50 countries every June.

What happened at the Stonewall Inn in 1969?

In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. The bar was a known gathering place for LGBTQ+ people. That night, the patrons did not leave quietly.

The crowd outside swelled to roughly 400 people, and protesters threw bottles and debris as police barricaded themselves inside the bar. The unrest continued for five nights. These events became known as the Stonewall riots.

The first Pride march (June 28, 1970)

One year later to the day, thousands took to the streets of New York City. Organizers called it Christopher Street Liberation Day: the first Pride parade in history. Marches took place the same day in Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

Estimates put the New York crowd at between 1,000 and 20,000 people. The march ended 51 blocks north at Sheep Meadow in Central Park, after crowds swelled along the route. It was the moment that turned a local act of resistance into a global tradition.

The rainbow Pride flag (1978)

Four years after the first march, artist Gilbert Baker designed the rainbow Pride flag for the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade. Baker chose the rainbow to reflect the diversity of the community: gender, race, age, and identity. Before this, the movement had no unified symbol of its own.

Baker rejected the pink triangle, which oppressors had used as a symbol against LGBTQ+ people. He wanted something the community created for itself. As he told NBC News in 2016: “Flags are about power. I knew right away that the rainbow would be the perfect fit for us.”

When did the U.S. government officially recognize Pride Month?

For 30 years after the first march, Pride Month had no official federal recognition. That changed in 1999, when President Bill Clinton declared June “Gay and Lesbian Pride Month.” His proclamation came on the 30th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.

Presidents who followed expanded that recognition. President Barack Obama proclaimed June LGBT Pride Month, and President Joe Biden later broadened the title to LGBTQ+ Pride Month. The federal government now formally recognizes June as LGBTQ+ Pride Month each year.