LGBTQ+ Pride Month is a time to celebrate inclusion and diversity, and reflect on our calling as human-centered designers to love and serve everyone. To signify our support of these communities, we’ve updated our logo to include the eleven colors of the Progress Pride Flag. But Pride Month is also an opportunity for reflection – and we know simply changing our logo is not enough.
We’d be remiss to wish you all a Happy Pride Month while ignoring our own opportunities for growth. We consider LUMA an ally to any community striving to solve wicked problems of injustice and inequity, but we are joining the conversation as a vocal advocate later than we should have. Simply, we need to do better.
We’re doubling down on the commitment we made in 2020 to make LUMA, our hiring practices, and our business models more equitable and inclusive. We’re adopting diversity, equity, and inclusion as more than just opportune buzzwords – we’re embracing them as core values and strategic pillars.
Here’s what else we have planned:
- In the spirit of human-centeredness, LUMA provides each employee with an annual Community Sponsorship Allowance of $250. We’re encouraging employees to direct their donation to LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations and stand with groups making positive change for folks in our communities.
- In 2020, we formed an internal task force focused specifically on racial justice and equity within LUMA. We recognize that racial justice, gender equity, and LGBTQ+ rights intersect in many ways, and we’ll be incorporating a focus on the latter two areas into the work moving forward.
- We’re building a commitment to these values into our performance review process. Team members, especially those in leadership positions, will be evaluated on their performance in relation to our goals around diversity, equity, and inclusion within their teams and across the organization.
- We’ll conduct an audit of our health insurance options and benefits to ensure inclusive coverage for our LGBTQ+ staff.
- Later this month, we’ll be hosting a live online event called How Might We: Design for Inclusivity exploring how design, when applied with both empathy and imagination, can support inclusion. We’ll create space for members of the LGBTQ+ and ally community to share their stories. Save the date for Tuesday, June 29, and register here.
We’re challenging ourselves to make consistent effort in service of a better future for all. We hope you’ll join us; let’s do this together.
Check out this list of resources:
ACLU LGBTQ Rights
CDC LGBTQ Youth
Human Rights Campaign
It Gets Better Project
Lambda Legal
The Trevor Project