Pride Month is a time in the United States where we commemorate the Stonewall riots, which occurred in June 1969. The Stonewall riots were a series of demonstrations by the LGBTQIA+ community, in response to a police raid on June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, located in Greenwich Village, a neighborhood in New York City.
Because of courageous members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and transgender women like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, I and many more have been able to celebrate Pride Month for over five decades.
I’m a proud openly gay man, and the New York City lead of our LGBTQIA+ employee resource group (ERG) Pride@Dataminr. I’ve worked at Dataminr for nearly 3 years and it’s the first company where I feel I’m able to bring my authentic self to work everyday. Our leadership team has made it a priority to show LGBTQIA+ individuals they are appreciated and seen.
Leadership meets with Pride@Dataminr monthly to support initiatives the group is working on, as well as hold discussions on major events happening in the LGBTQIA+ community. On December 1, 2020 actor Elliot Page, formerly Ellen Page, posted a heartfelt message to Instagram saying, “I want to share with you that I am trans, my pronouns are he/they and my name is Elliot.”
After Elliot Page came forward with his powerful truth, Pride@Dataminr and Dataminr leadership met to discuss how best to encourage employees—those who felt comfortable—to use their pronouns in Slack and their email signature. In moments like these, I’m reminded how Dataminr prioritizes its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, and quickly adapts to changing needs.
Pride@Dataminr hosts a number of special events to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community and bring awareness to issues the community still faces.
- Our annual Global Pride kickoff event, held at the start of June. Dataminr employees added their favorite songs to a playlist and met—virtually this year—to have a cocktail or coffee and discuss upcoming Pride Month events. This safe space gave people an opportunity to open up about their connection to the LGBTQIA+ community.
- A live discussion with LGBTQIA+ mental health expert, Rajkaran Sachdej, MD, on mental health within the LGBTQIA+ community. Sachdej gave a brief history and overview of LGBTQIA+ global mental health, and showed current research alluding to prominent issues faced by the community at large. This conversation provided best practices Dataminr can use for caring for LGBTQIA+ mental health in the workplace.
- This year, Dataminr is a Gold sponsor for the Lesbians Who Tech and Allies Global Pride Summit, which takes place June 21-25. This sponsorship allows Dataminr to recruit and retain queer talent and build a more inclusive culture. We’ll have a booth at both the expo and career fair.
- For the second year, Pride@Dataminr will hold its Pride Drag Queen Bingo, hosted by RuPaul’s Drag Race star Jan Sport. This event gives members of the Dataminr community an inclusive, safe, diverse, and vibrant space to relax and enjoy queer talent.
These Pride@Dataminr events give the entire Dataminr community an opportunity to come together and celebrate the diverse world in which we live and work. However, the work doesn’t stop after Pride Month. Pride@Dataminr and leadership have made a commitment to focus on our diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, and make Dataminr a place where everyone feels at home.
Interested in joining our team? Check out our open roles.
