Happy Pride Month – 19 ideas for office celebrations

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Happy Pride Month! While you may be in the middle of June, it’s not enough to just display a rainbow on your company website. Here are some ideas you can incorporate into your office to help create a celebratory vibe and build support.

Reward Platform

If your workplace rewards platform allows it, donate it to LGBTQ+ causes. Research shows that workplace rewards have a greater impact on engagement when they are closely aligned to employees’ beliefs and values.

Give stolen goods

Small flags, pins or pencils will go a long way, but if your budget allows, get some tote bags and more goodies to show your support.

Digital Background

A lot of work happens on Zoom or other digital meeting spaces. Why not change your background to a rainbow or pride flag? Bonus points if you’re the boss who shows initiative.

Drag Bingo

Been to Drag Queen Bingo? Oh, you don’t know what you’ve been missing! Take your crew out to brunch and get ready for some laughs and a few performances. Don’t forget to give the Drag Host a generous reward afterward. They don’t make much money doing these shows.

Inclusive Company Picnic

Get everyone together, find a nice green space, and have families bring their kids to play. Prepare some games so everyone can enjoy themselves. Games don’t have to be all rainbows and flags. It can be a fun and safe space where everyone who attends knows they are surrounded by allies and can sit back and have a good time.

Volunteer Day

There are lots of places that need LGBTQ+ friendly volunteers. If you don’t know which ones are in your area, do a quick search and have your company choose one that can help.

Colorful food

There’s always that one in every office – the one who brings in homemade cookies or brownies (I’m one of them. Guilty as charged). They’ll most likely bring some rainbow cake. If they can bake a bigger rainbow cake for the whole office to share, spend a few bucks on it.

Conduct inclusion workshops

There are a lot of LGBTQ activists and passionate voices who are more than happy to come and share their expertise. Keep at it. These workshops are not a hard-line attack on inclusivity, they are just open spaces where questions can be asked and answered to move towards a better future.

Hiring LGBTQ+ speakers

Similar to a seminar, but more of a “sit and listen” scenario. You can invite whomever you think will best fit the atmosphere of the office – funny, educational, quirky, professional, etc. Yes, the emphasis is on “hired” – they just want to get paid for their services like everyone else.

Donate to LGBTQ+ charities

Maybe you don’t have the time to volunteer. That’s okay! There are plenty of charities you can donate to. Just do a quick Google search and do some due diligence to help in any way you can.

Re-evaluating policies

Maybe it’s not that your company is not inclusive. But maybe the details of your discrimination and diversity policies need updating and tweaking. Remember, there’s never been a better time to do so.

Virtual Pride Parade

You may not be able to get your entire office to the parade, but that doesn’t mean you have to miss out! Set up some monitors and stream the events in some cities around the world. Take advantage of this opportunity to eat that piece of rainbow cake!

Decorate your office

We do this at Christmas and Halloween. Why not do it at Pride! Rainbows and a little glitter might just put a smile on everyone’s face! Also, give your cleaning crew a bonus at the end of the month – for those scattered glitters.

Social Media Recognition

Show your support on social media. However, be careful not to become a rainbow washer (which means you show your support for only one month of the year and then disappear the rest of the year, often accused of doing this by companies to make extra profits). Tweet what you are doing in the office to show your support!

Pride Month Quiz

Everyone loves a good quiz night. Break out the beer and nachos and make the quiz a competitive, bonding experience.

A Quick History Lesson

Print out some interesting tidbits about gay history and post them around the office. Who knows, maybe they’ll be useful for a pub night quiz to see who’s actually reading them.

Pride Festival Playlist

Ask any LGBTQ+ person and there will always be a list of songs that the community agrees are classics. Collect these songs and play them when you feel people need a pick-me-up or during an event. This will really bring some “joy” during Pride month.

Movie/TV Listings

There is no shortage of them. There is no shortage of amazing performances in some of these productions. Just Google it – but be sensitive to some of the characters as some may be extremely violent towards LGBTQ+ people.

book list

The same goes for books. Whether they are LGBT-themed or written by people in the community. There are countless wonderful stories. Your office would benefit greatly from reading them.

Got any other Happy Pride Month office ideas? Share them in the comments!