Significance of Celebrating Delight – San Francisco Bay Occasions

Michael Günther

By Michael Günther –

Every year in June we have the opportunity to come together as a community to celebrate LGBTQ + Pride, to commemorate our community, to stand up for our rights and to recognize our individualism. However, I feel that over the years we have lost the core roots of the Pride celebrations. Pride started out as a form of advocacy but seems to have evolved into a corporate marketing and party celebration over time. Don’t get me wrong now; Pride events are always fun and energetic, but let’s not lose the core elements of how it started.

I believe that advocacy must be the foundation of our Pride events. Over the years we struggled for health needs during the AIDS crisis. We had to fight to serve openly in the military. We had to fight to marry the people we love. We continue to fight for equal protection in employment, housing and equally important trans rights.

As business leaders, we need to make sure we advocate our community beyond Pride. We can introduce anti-discrimination policies in our offices and require the purchase of goods and services from various suppliers. We can be open about who we are at work and at home, and support our community through organizations like the Golden Gate Business Association as well as a variety of nonprofits that support our community. Eventually, with our elected officials at the local, state, and federal levels, we can become advocates for politics.

We know from statistics that even though we are living in 2021, discrimination against our community is still an ongoing problem. So I beg you to evaluate how you can celebrate Pride, not just this month, but every month throughout the year. Through your active intent to celebrate who you are and stand up for our community, you can influence those in our community who are uncomfortable with being their authentic selves or who feel alone in an unwelcome home or work environment.

Our community is stronger today than it was 60 years ago when the Stonewall Riots sparked the LGBTQ + movement, but we as business leaders have an obligation to use our influence and activism to promote the Pride Torch. The rights and privileges we have today were a gift to us from those who stood up and died for our rights for decades, fighting for equal rights while driving to be heard.

Our resilience and strength as a community is increased when we all come together to celebrate where we have arrived and where we are going. So I ask you to evaluate how advocacy can help you become a champion of our community so that future generations of all skin colors and faiths will be better off than we are today to attend their future Pride events.

Michael Gunther is a board member and president of the Golden Gate Business Association and managing partner of Collaboration Business Consulting, a team of highly skilled business professionals dedicated to helping proactive individuals build scalable, profitable businesses.

Published on June 10, 2021