June is Pride Month! While your employees should feel empowered to be true to themselves in the workplace with full acceptance year-round, you can host events this month around Pride to celebrate love in all forms. Celebrating Pride Month will help foster a supportive environment at work and emphasize your workplace’s commitment to inclusion and diversity. 

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For this month-long celebration of the LGBTQ+ community, our team at Epoch has put together a few event ideas for your workplace!

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Help Organizations that Support the LGBTQ+ Community 👏🏻

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• A great way to not only celebrate, but also give to the LGBTQ+ community is to come together and volunteer at a local LGBTQ+ non-profit organization. Encourage your employees to contribute to their community by scheduling a day for volunteering. 
• There are numerous LGBTQ+ nonprofits in the Bay Area, such as the SF LGBT Center and Gay for Good. 

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Empower and Educate Your Team’s LGBTQ+ Allies 💡

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• Encourage allyship at your workplace by organizing educational workshops for your team to learn more about supporting the LGBTQ+ community. These can be held in-person, or virtually to reach a wider audience across your global workplace. 
• Bring in guest speakers educated in topics such as Parenting Talks for Pride or LGBTQ+ Allyship & Inclusion in the Workplace. 

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Host a Rainbow-Themed Dinner 🥗

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• Nothing brings people together better than food! Rally your team for a rainbow-themed potluck and have employees sign up to bring their own colorful food items. For those who are less culinary-inclined, bringing a fruit platter is always a safe option. 
• Does your team have an outdoor space? Consider taking out the grill for a barbecue to enjoy the warm summer weather in June. 

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Tie-Dye Team Bonding 🌈

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• This family-friendly event will allow for a great team bonding opportunity! Unlike a typical arts & crafts activity, tie-dyeing requires participants to get their hands messier than usual. 
• Tie-dyeing can be done in-person or virtually from the comforts of home. Employees can choose their own clothing of choice to bring, such as t-shirts and tank tops, and can also bring extra clothes to dye for their family members or friends. 

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Taste the Rain-dough 🌈

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• Arrange an in-person or virtual baking class for a great team bonding experience. Fun ideas include learning how to bake a gluten-free rainbow cake, vegan rainbow chocolate chip cookies, or even rainbow bagels! Before hosting the event, send out a survey to collect participants’ dietary restrictions in order to accommodate the entire team, as well as an open form for participants to send in any of their own recipes.
• Provide participants with the necessary ingredients for an in-person class or send out gift cards ahead of time for those who are participating virtually to purchase their own ingredients. 

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Celebrate LGBTQ+ Stories in Literature 📚

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• Host a hybrid-friendly Book Club meeting with your team and choose a novel starring LGBTQ+ voices for members to read and discuss. Being exposed to more diverse stories is important to increase empathy and push back against bias and prejudice. 
• Check out this list of LGBTQ+ Pride Books ranging from inspirational memoirs to heartwarming novels about love for all. 

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Watch LGBTQ+ Characters on the Big Screen 🎞

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• In recent years, LGBTQ+ individuals have had more representation in Hollywood and mainstream cinema. Host a Netflix Party for your team and consider having multiple screenings to accommodate global teams and time zones. 
• Popular selections include the Oscar-winning movies Call Me By Your Name starring Timothee Chalamet and Moonlight. You can find more LGBTQ+ films on Netflix on this list.