Top 10 WorkPride 2024 Quotes
July 2, 2024myGwork marked its fifth annual celebration of WorkPride this June, featuring a remarkable array of enthusiastic speakers sharing insights as LGBTQ+ professionals and allies to the community. In a society that increasingly embraces diversity, prioritizing inclusion is essential not only in the workplace but in all social engagements.
The WorkPride event reinforces the significance of vocal and proactive allyship, stressing its heightened importance in current times. Drawing upon valuable advice and impactful personal stories, this year’s WorkPride empowered attendees with exclusive insights to enhance their diversity and inclusion strategies. Here are 10 quotes from the memorable WorkPride 2024 event to inspire you:
1) “People are going to challenge you; they're not going to understand. They might ‘disagree’ with your identity, which is hilarious because I don't need you to agree with my existence - I just need you to treat me like a human being." - TJ Richards, Santander UK
2) "Unconscious bias is nothing but a brain's way of choosing the easiest way to come to a conclusion with information that’s provided to us. How can we correct it? We need to have more representation. We need to have more diversity in the people that we talk to." - Nusrat Sharmin, JTI Macdonald Corp
3) “People think that allyship is a one-time action, and that a single act of support in a diversity event is sufficient. That is just not what allyship is at all. It's an ongoing commitment. It's ongoing and continuous learning. It's sustained advocacy and it's really regular involvement in diversity in inclusion initiatives.” Sheena Amin, Avalere Health
4) "My advice to individuals when they see first-hand discrimination, is not to stay silent about it. What hurts most is the silence of people who see you get discriminated against but say nothing. Be that person who speaks up." Gretchen Diez, Accenture
5) “The rainbow ceiling is not just created from bias from other people… quite often we can also self-sensor ourselves. It’s a combination of how we self-sensor and hold ourselves back, how our managers and others support our development and potentially inadvertently hold us back, and then all sorts of barriers in the actual application and recruitment process.” - Layla McCay, NHS
6) “If you are an organization that wants to be here long term, this way of operating with a focus on DNI is just to be expected. By next year, 75% of the workforce is going to be made up of millennials. That generation has a completely different leadership role style and I think we have to bear that in mind that they have much larger focus on innovation when it comes to the culture of inclusion.” - Natasha Whitehurst, Rolls Royce
7) “Free speech doesn't mean you're free from consequences. Hate speech can incite acts of violence that actually infringe on the victim’s rights. There is a greater moral imperative to protect against those acts of violence and you can do that easily by regulating against hate speech.” - Carly Peterson, Charles River
8) “When you are in a position of power, there is an altruistic element or a darker side of altruism, which means that you're going to be influenced and driven by what you like, by personal traits. It’s those biases can sort of influence decision making and behaviors and potentially need to unintentional exclusion or favoritism within mentorship programs.” - Nailah Logan, Pink Lantern Therapy Services
9) “Being bi means love and attraction and affection and emotion to anyone and everyone without order, without restriction, without guidelines, without having to deny who my heart feels that desire for.” - LaRissa O'Neal, RS Group
10) “The media has reach and impact. I know that the stories that I tell have the potential to create social change, and to help someone out there to at least acknowledge that they’re not alone.” - Ben Hunte, VICE News