T. Rowe Price Celebrates Virtual Pride
Every year during June and July, our associates around the world come together to participate in a broad range of activities in celebration of Pride. Even as the coronavirus pandemic impacts worldwide events and with hundreds of parades and events postponed or canceled, there is still an opportunity to bring about awareness on a global level—and to celebrate milestones like the U.S. Supreme Court's decision. This year, we embarked on a new direction and are using virtual events as a way to globally celebrate diversity and equality during these challenging times.
On our internal social networking site, GlobalNet, the business resource group (BRG) PRIDE @ T. Rowe Price provided resources, forums, and upcoming virtual events for associates to participate in during June and July while they work year-round to create awareness and collaborate with our other Diversity & Inclusion groups. The goal of the BRG is to create an environment where all T. Rowe Price associates can bring their full selves to work each day and affirm what the value of being a member of PRIDE has done and can continue to do for the LGBTQ+ community.
“My work for T. Rowe Price has married career aspirations with personal and professional growth. I’ve had the opportunity to be on the front lines of making a difference over the years because our culture encourages employees to be engaged and bring our full selves to work,” says Jesse Terpstra, cochair of PRIDE’s Colorado Springs chapter.
Moving forward into a fully virtual space set a challenge for the PRIDE Advisory Group to create events that strive to embody the same level of engagement and energy as we would experience through in-person events. “One of the things this is teaching us is to be flexible. We still want to take part in each location’s events and activities and want to be flexible enough that we aren’t tied into last year’s thinking that we have a peak time in June and July. We’re going to stretch it and think about what we can do. I think that’s what working from home has taught the PRIDE Advisory Group,” said LQ Huang, chair of PRIDE @ T. Rowe Price.
The largest of these events included a global stream on Saturday, June 27, where organizations across the world celebrated Global Pride 2020, a 24-hour stream including musical performances as well as speeches from activists and campaigners. The event aimed to help viewers rejoice in the diversity of LGBTQ+ people everywhere.
On June 21, our Colorado Springs location participated in the 2020 Coors Light Denver Virtual PRIDE Parade. The event featured a compilation of video clips of individuals celebrating. The video montage from community organizations was live-streamed with live commentary on Facebook Live where featured Colorado Springs associates were seen showing their support.
Outside of the virtual parade events, PRIDE @ T. Rowe Price has resources to “Show Your Pride” through downloadable wallpaper and email signature banner as well as an open forum that allows all associates to recognize and celebrate diversity. LQ says, “I think that’s a key component of all the BRGs. On top of associate engagement, building associate awareness of what’s going on, gaining those views and perspectives, and giving them an opportunity to share or learn is important. We’re providing a platform to talk about things openly and safely, ask questions, and offer comments and feedback.
“We celebrate the PRIDE community’s wins in June and July but the PRIDE @ T. Rowe Price BRG members strive every day to educate, advocate, and create open and supportive work environment for all.”
