Pride 2022: A Moment To Reflect
July 20, 2022At Valtech, Diversity and Inclusion is core to all our
work—with each other, with our clients and everyone in between. For us, it’s
key we understand what inclusion means to all our Valtechies, so everyone feels
heard.
Pride, a month dedicated to celebrating LGBT+ (lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender+) communities all around the world, is an important
marker in our global calendar, as an organisation represented in 22+ countries
and 50+ cities. For us, our theme in 2022 is “recognising where we are, so we can
shape where we need to go.”
Before Pride became a celebration, it started out as a
protest. June 28, 1969 marks the start of the Stonewall riots in which the
queer community responded to a police raid that began at the Stonewall Inn, a
bar located in the Greenwich Village neighbourhood of Manhattan, New York, that
served as a safe haven for the city’s gay, lesbian and transgender citizens.
With this in mind, we wanted to dedicate June as a time for
Valtech and all of its Valtechies to celebrate how far we have come, whilst
recognising we still are not at our end destination yet.
A Moment of Reflection
In June, we will be sharing regular educational posts on our internal community, to help provide insights to all our Valtechies on different gender identities, the role of legislation in LGBT+ rights and more.
To bring together our month, we are hosting an internal
Pride event where we’ll delve into what Pride means to members of the LGBT+
community and how we can and must all stand up for LGBT+ rights. We’re honoured
to have Devin Ibańez as our keynote speaker. Devin is the world's first openly
gay Major League Rugby player and was one of the first players ever signed to
the New England Free Jacks in 2019.
Born and raised in Brookline, Massachusetts, Ibañez has been
playing rugby for over 13 years and his love for the sport has taken him all
over the world. He has played in Australia, New Zealand, England, Canada, and
Israel in addition to his home country. In 2017, he represented the USA and
went on to win gold against South Africa in the World Maccabiah Games.
He continued his success by helping to lead his hometown
club, Mystic River, to the 2018 D1 National Championship. Since coming out via
an Instagram post in December 2020, Ibañez has set his sights on being an
outspoken voice for all members of the LGBT+ community who are struggling to be
themselves in sport.
At our event, we’ll also have an energetic panel of
Valtechies who will add to this important discussion.
We're excited for our first global Pride event and will continue to prioritise and
embrace diversity and foster inclusion in all that we do.
A Pride Collaboration With Sitecore
To keep the conversation moving, we’ll also be joining a
panel discussion with our partner, Sitecore. This discussion will be lead
by Sitecore’s own Ryan Levitt (he/him), Vice
President, Communication with Sheree Atcheson (she/her), Group Vice President of
Diversity & Inclusion at Valtech and Jack Guest (he/him)
Global Diversity & Inclusion Lead at HSBC, where we’ll be discussing
the importance of inclusivity in the workspace.
To keep up to date with all of our efforts, please check out the Diversity & Inclusion section on our website.
And check out our Pride Instagram story series here.