Pride Month is an opportunity for organisations to recognise and celebrate their LGBTQ+ employees. Whether it’s through a peaceful protest, marches and corporate events, they serve as a way to honor Pride Month, taking a stand for equity, diversity and Inclusion. This year, is important for businesses to be reminded to reflect on their discrimination policies and make meaningful changes to their workplace culture to protect their LGBTQ+ employees.
By organising an LGBTQ+ Pride Month event and Intentional campaign, it will position your company on the right side of history. Our LGBTQ+ speakers are the perfect addition to such workshops, conferences and campaigns, they will leave your audience empowered, educated and with a clear path on how you can advocate and ally for this community.
Our speakers have empowering insight into the community but also powerful personal stories that will leave all of your employees with a newfound perspective. Learn about the importance of Pride Month and the best speakers to book on this post, from a leading DE&I Speakers Bureau.
When is Pride Month?
Pride month takes place the entire month of June, from the 1st to the 30th. This month’s focused was specifically to commemorate the Stonewall Riots, which took place in 1969 and sparked the LGBTQ+ equality revolution.
Why Is Pride Month Important In the Workplace?
The truth is that if we don’t create cultures of belonging and Inclusivity for all communities it not only costs us money but companies lose their best talent. In a report, 25% of LGBTQ+ employees admitted they would stay in a role because it had an LGBTQ-inclusive work environment. Showing corporations that they must prioritize creating safe cultures and training their leaders to build cultures of belonging. You want for your employees to be their authentic self at work, if you don’t, then there is a price to pay.
By celebrating Pride Month, it sends a clear message to your employees that you support them and their identities. Don’t just talk, make sure that you walk the talk because if you don’t then you are guaranteed to be seen as someone that tokenizes people and you’ll lose your people.
Top Speakers for Pride Month
Discover our top pick of LGBTQ+ motivational speakers for your Pride Month event.
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Azure Antoinette
Azure Antoinette is a commissioned poet, TED Speaker, GRAMMYTM considered recording artist, entrepreneur, and arts education advocate. Forbes named her the “Maya Angelou of the millennial generation” in highly acclaimed Most Powerful Women in the World Issue.
Azure was discovered on the international stage of the Women’s Conference where she was commissioned by former First Lady Maria Shriver. Her specialized style of performance poetry and storytelling garnered her a feature in Oprah Magazine after meeting her in 2010. Since her discovery, Azure has opened and written for Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat Pray Love), spokesperson for Clean & Clear, American retailer The GAP (One Stitch Closer), Lady Gaga, Beats by Dr. Dre and many more.
Azure’s keynote session can be on Pride at work, she can also commission a poetry for your company.
Ashley T. Brundage
Ashley T Brundage is the Founder and President of Empowering Differences, and also the title of Ashley’s book released in 2020. Ashley’s personal story of inclusion through a leadership dialogue is often requested. Beginning when she decided to self identify during job interview’s as a male to female transgender woman, she fought through homelessness, discrimination, and harassment to rise above and find employment as a teller for a major US based corporation. Then through various financial roles over the next 5 years until being appointed into her position as Vice President with the National Diversity and Inclusion team. Ashley recently celebrated 19 years of marriage to Whitney and together they have two biological sons; Bryce, 16, and Blake, 14.
Since beginning transitioning in 2008, she has worked tirelessly to promote awareness and acceptance of gender identity and expression within the entire community. She works to accomplish this goal by volunteering & serving in the community. She is the Past President of the Tampa Bay LGBT Chamber of Commerce, and held advisory positions with the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transit Authority, Equality Florida, and the NGLCC-National LGBT Chamber of Commerce. She chaired the successful bid to host the NGLCC convention in 2019, and Visit Tampa Bay named her their Tourism Champion for 2017. In July of 2019, she was named on to the national board of directors for GLAAD, the organization protecting LGBTQ voices across all media platforms.
Roy Gluckman
Roy Gluckman is a qualified attorney of the High Court of South Africa and the director of Cohesion Collective, an Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) consulting and training firm. Roy has been speaking professionally on issues relating to EDI since 2010 and is an exceptionally engaging, highly sophisticated, and passionate speaker and facilitator.
Roy believes in having tough conversations; approaching his material with honesty, authenticity, and simplicity. Roy has mastered the art of making the difficult subject matter of EDI easily digestible for audiences of all types and all occasions. As a keynote speaker, panelist, programme director and facilitator Roy continues to captivate and challenge audiences to pause and introspect, something he believes we do not do enough of.
LGBTIQA+ keynote session options:
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* Refracting the Rainbow: unpacking the acronym, thinking about why Pride is important and what Allyship means. This is less about the organisation, and more about the movement, Pride, LGBT inclusion, generally.
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* Pink Home: thinking about LGBTIQA+ inclusion in organisations, what is it, what does it mean, and what Allyship means
Mark Travis Rivera
Mark Travis Rivera is an award-winning professional storyteller––telling stories is at the core of Mark’s purpose in life. A graduate of William Paterson University of New Jersey, Rivera earned a bachelor’s in women’s & gender studies with a minor in public relations. In 2013, Rivera received the Student Government Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his commitment to the William Paterson community. In the same year, he was honored with the Campus Pride Voice & Action Award for his work with the LGBTQ community. More recently, he won the Audre Lorde Award for Social Justice from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY. Rivera is the youngest person to found an integrated dance company in the United States, marked dance project, a contemporary company for dancers with and without disabilities, established in March 2009, made its debut at Rutgers University.
The company has also performed at the Silk City Summer Arts Festival, the Painted Bride Art Center, the Mandell Theater, the Actor’s Fund Arts Center in Brooklyn, NY and New York University. Through MDP, Rivera has worked with choreographers such as Caitlin Trainor, Stacey Tookey, Todrick Hall, Tyce Diorio, and Marinda Davis. After ten years of remarkable dancing, Rivera decided to dissolve the marked dance project and continue working as an independent disabled choreographer. Rivera’s writing has also been published in The Bergen Record, Herald News, The Star Ledger, Fox News Latino, and The Huffington Post. His debut collection, Drafts: An Imperfect Collection of Writing was published in August of 2017 through Amazon. In 2020, Rivera launched his wellness podcast, Marking The Path, which is available on Apple Podcast and Spotify.
Topics
Coping with Shame | Embracing Yourself, and Privilege | Embracing Your Potential | Embracing Your Potential, Love is an Act of Leadership | Advocating for LGBT Victims of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault | Creating Braver Work Spaces
Matt Lindley
Matt graduated with a degree in commerce from the University of Birmingham. After leaving University, he joined the Ford Motor Company Graduate Training Programme and joined a team implementing Japanese Management techniques in the car industry.
In 1995 Matt was selected to join the UK Royal Air Force as a pilot. During his military career, he flew many aircraft including the Hawk fighter jet. In 2000 he was selected to fly Her Majesty The Queen, members of the UK Royal Family and Government worldwide, serving on The Royal Squadron. Whilst serving, he became a qualified flying instructor and VIP qualified Captain. He flew missions in the Sierra Leone, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Matt was one of the first openly gay pilots in the RAF.
In 2007 Matt left the Service to join a leading UK airline, initially flying the Airbus on their short haul network. Matt now flies the Boeing 777 on long haul routes.
In addition to flying, Matt specialises in non-technical training. He delivers Human Performance Factors keynote speeches and workshops which draw on flight management techniques to optimise outcomes, whilst minimising human error in the workplace.
Topics
Mental Health | Resilience – how to weather the storm | Being your authentic self | Stress and workplace performance | How to be an inclusive leader | Trust – building a psychologically safe place | The importance of allies | Culture change | Emotional intelligence and empathy | Workplace banter
Max Masure
They published a non-fiction book in 2022 where they share about their life as a trans person and their process of overcoming imposter syndrome: “You (Don’t) Suck: a workbook to overcome imposter syndrome”:
www.youdontsuck-book.com/
In the past 15 years, they worked as a UX Designer/Researcher with healthcare companies like Johnson & Johnson, FOLX Health, Monument, Octave, and Talkspace. They also worked with various industries like retail, finance, and civic tech with Nike, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Robinhood Blue Ridge Labs, Higher Ground, and the New Jersey Office of Innovation. Their work shifted when they started to live authentically as part of the LGBTQ community. They now incorporate Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in their design and research work.
As part of their Justice, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work, they co-founded Argo Collective, a DEI training company, and the Service Design Network Organization’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Board.
They believe in equity, community-centered design, and the liberation of underrepresented communities. They regularly speak on trans inclusion, imposter syndrome, ethics, and transformative culture.
Topics
Supporting Trans and Gender Non-conforming Folks
Book a Pride Month Speaker
To book an LGBTQ+ speaker for your Pride Month event, visit our website notainclusion.com or send us an email to contact@notainclusion.com
A booking agent will discuss your requirements and customize a session for your company. We look forward to working with you!