We remain committed to our DEI focus on allyship as a company, and as the chair of Mapbox’s Rainbow Employee Resource Group (ERG), I want to share the many ways we celebrated and recognized Pride Month at Mapbox.
CELEBRATE AND RECOGNIZE
This year’s Pride Month theme at Mapbox was “Stronger Together.” The idea behind this theme is that it is not just on the LGBTQIA+ community to fight for equality on a global scale. This journey for equal rights and freedom to live as our authentic selves is the shared responsibility of our community and our allies around the world. We are stronger when we are working together.
And with that, our focus was to host events (in person and virtual), share educational materials (books, podcasts, movies, and TV shows), and promote donation matching to LGBTQIA+ friendly organizations as a way to foster a sense of safety, learning, and community at Mapbox.
MAPBOX PRIDE EVENTS
Throughout the month of June, we hosted various in-person and virtual events, and I wanted to recap all the great things our teams did in hopes of inspiring others.
Safety, Trust, Allyship: Stronger Together Workshop
Last year the Rainbow ERG hosted a two-part workshop with guest speaker, Rachel Wallis, from Citrine Culture Consulting, focused on inclusive language and allyship.
We invited Rachel back to build off of last year’s workshops as an ongoing educational series. This Pride Month, Rachel focused on ways Mapboxers can create safety, establish trust, and build allyship through the lens of being stronger together. Together we learned about what gender neutral and gender affirming language is, what it looks like in a work environment, and provided practical tips that Mapboxers can use to create safety, establish trust, and ultimately become a better ally to the LGBTQIA+ community.
Virtual Drag Bingo
We also hosted a virtual drag bingo event bringing back our favorite Drag Queen and host, Schwa, who ran a lively game of bingo while DJing a playlist of LGBTQIA+ artists.
Europe Pub Trivia
Mapboxers located in Europe celebrated Pride Month by playing Pride Trivia hosted virtually and in-person. The trivia questions tested Mapboxers knowledge of various historical and present day topics related to the LGBTQIA+ community.
US Pride MeetUps
Mapboxers in Washington DC, San Francisco, and Seattle gathered together in person to celebrate Pride Month. Check out the fun below!
Mapboxers in DC
Mapboxers in Seattle
Mapboxers in San Francisco
COMPANY DONATION MATCHING
To further our commitment and understanding of the importance of capital in regards to equity, we also launched an internal donation matching campaign with GLADD Foundation, The Gender Cool Project, and in support of the recent events around the world targeting the trans community, Transgender Law Center.
CONTINUING THE CONVERSATION
Celebrating our authentic selves is not reserved only for Pride Month but is an every day occasion. As we continue to push for equality and equity in and outside of the workplace, our ERG is committed to continuing these conversations and creating an inclusive and diverse workplace. We encourage all members of the LGBTQIA+ community and our allies to support one another and always choose to be their most authentic selves.