Lucy Coates
Deputy Sales Team Leader
August is the month Softcat have chosen to celebrate Pride. The importance of this celebration has never been more poignant. Pride is celebrated on a global level to acknowledge the LGBT+ community and predominantly focuses on: celebrating how far we have come as community, educating pride history and continuing to embrace the equality movement.
Usually Pride would signify a month of fun events, pride marches in each city and the LGBT+ community coming together to have a good time. However, this year is different as we all have to celebrate virtually! Personally, I believe the importance is far greater during this time, as many minorities including members of LGBT+ community are at a heightened risk of homophobic remarks. This is mainly due to unforeseen changes in environment, living circumstances, etc.
This Pride many of us are donating the money we would have spent on transport, clothes, drinks, etc. during parades and other events to LGBTQ+ charities instead. By doing this we will be supporting helplines that assist LGBTQ+ people who are in abusive environments during the COVID-19 pandemic — because some are not safe in quarantine. If you would like to do the same you can do so here.
However, not all doom and gloom! As a business, Softcat is acknowledging this and coming together to celebrate what our network means to us, which allows visibility and care to be shared within our Softcat Pride Network. This will signify a week of online and virtual activities including: Drag Queen Bingo with the RuPaul’s star Charlie Hides and Stride for Pride (our very own Pride March)… Alongside the activities, we are sending out Pride Packs to our employees to signify the element of Pride fun we all love. How are you or have you celebrated Pride this year?