AT&T Celebrate LGBT Pride Month

In June 1969, a gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village called the Stonewall Inn was raided by police. This event sparked what history has called The Stonewall Riots—a turning point for the LGBT rights movement. Every June, we commemorate this important event with Pride Month. We celebrate how far the LGBT rights movement has come, but we also remember how far we have yet to go.

At AT&T, diversity and inclusion have always been top priorities. Just a few years after the riots, in 1975, we became one of the first major American corporations to adopt a policy prohibiting discrimination against employees based on sexual orientation. In 1987, LEAGUE at AT&T (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Allies Employees of AT&T), the oldest Employee Resource Group (ERG) in the nation was born.

Today, we reaffirm our commitment, not just to our LGBT employees, but also to the larger LGBT community with the AT&T Live Proud campaign. The campaign is an effort centered on awareness, empowerment, and most importantly, pride for the LGBT community; and supports The Trevor Project, the national leader in crisis intervention and suicide prevention services for LGBT youth.

We truly value all of our people—no matter who they are or where they come from. The fact that we’ve been ranked as one of the top 50 companies for diversity in DiversityInc.’s survey is a testament to that fact. We were also ranked No. 2 on the 2013 DiversityInc Top 10 Companies for LGBT Employees and have been named one of the “Best Places to Work” by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) since 2004.

I am very appreciative of the support that AT&T has provided me as a member of the LGBT community. AT&T truly is a great place to work and recognizes that diversity is essential to the culture and to business success.

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of representing AT&T at the GLSEN Respect Awards in New York and presenting the award for the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) of the Year. I am proud to work for a company that not only values diversity of its employees but supports organizations like GLSEN who are working to ensure that schools are a safe space for all students.

This June, AT&T joins the LGBT community and beyond to celebrate Pride Month. No matter who you are, your workplace should feel like your second home, and your colleagues should feel like a second family. We are committed to making sure that rings true at AT&T—for all our employees.

To learn even more about our commitment to being a great place to work, check out this video on AT&T’s longstanding history of promoting diversity and inclusion.