Each June, PRIDE (Pariveda’s employee resource group for LGBTQIA+ employees) coordinates local and national celebrations of LGBTQIA+ history and culture. In 2022, as a member of PRIDE, I volunteered to put together a companywide email to celebrate Pride Month. While putting together that content, I found some clarity in my own identity and a tool to improve my work.
Pride Month celebration and education
June offers the opportunity to celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride Month and the impact that LGBTQ+ individuals have had in the world. The timing of Pride Month falls in June to honor the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan, which were a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement and marked a shift in LGBTQ+ activism in the United States. Pride Month is a month of celebration, sharing, education, and advocacy. The LGBTQ+ community, by its own acronym definition, is a non-homogenous group. Each member holds a unique identity in the community. I am constantly learning from other LGBTQ+ friends and colleagues, as we all experience the world and our communities differently. Every time our PRIDE group meets, I learn something new about identity, inclusion, or otherwise.
It’s because of this that when members of the PRIDE circle met to discuss what to share with the firm in our 2022 Pride Month email, we focused on the concept of intersectionality. This concept attempts to articulate the expansive list of identities that make up the vibrant LGBTQ+ community and that these identities (e.g., “gay,” “black,” and “woman”) don’t exist independently of each other but must be considered together. The term is often used to highlight that holding certain identities results in increased discrimination, disadvantage, and oppression of an individual.
Finding clarity
In writing the firm-wide email, it dawned on me that I had never formally acknowledged my being a bisexual man in a work setting before. While I was bringing my full self to work, my personal life tended to be something brought up in 1:1 conversations, not large-audience emails. The email began to feel like this defining moment where my coworkers would suddenly interact with me as a different person. I was viewing this as a change in my identity as opposed to sharing a new layer. I pulled from the very email I was writing, as this is exactly what intersectionality helps us see in each other. I always felt I was bringing my full self to work before, but I never felt like my sexuality overlapped with my work life. This new perspective allowed me to give more than my seemingly separate identities and use the intersection of them to deliver a stronger message.
Intersectionality as a tool
“Viewing the world through an intersectional lens has equipped me with a powerful framework to understand the ways in which my own unique identity influences my experiences within the realms of community, work, and beyond.”
As a member of the Talent Development team, this perspective has significantly impacted how I connect with and understand the diverse people and teams that I collaborate with on a daily basis. By investing time and effort in understanding the unique intersections of their identities, I am able to adapt my communication and approach, enhancing my effectiveness in the work that I do. I am now bringing a more diverse and inclusive perspective to our conversations about performance reviews, training programs, and the firm’s overall approach to growing our people. I’m not just bringing my own perspective, but using intersectionality as a tool to empathize with others and bring experiences different than my own to the table. Through this approach, I aim to foster a more inclusive and supportive environment where everyone can thrive. Funny what a firm-wide email can teach you about yourself.
