Pride Month Wrap-Up
Thank you to the SLAC Community for showing your Pride last month. It was truly heartening to see so many activities available around the Lab, and to observe a sharp increase in visibility compared to past years. We are excited to build on this momentum as we think about Pride 2022 at SLAC.
Here are some highlights from the month that we wanted to share! You can view photos from the LCLS photo op and the on-site Pride celebration here.
Showing our Pride
We distributed over 150 pins and 500 stickers in locations throughout SLAC - make sure to contact the Council if you’d like more pins or stickers! Keep an eye out for giveaways at future events.
We posted a banner at the SLAC main gate, and hung a rainbow flag in the SUSB lobby throughout the month of June. Beyond SLAC, the Department of Energy flew the Progress Ride flag at their Headquarters for the first time!
On the tech side, we created Pride month Zoom backgrounds that were used by employees across the Lab. SLAC’s social media icons also honored Pride month - our SLAC logo looked lovely with some extra color!
Over at LCLS, employees gathered for a Pride group photo on June 27.
Pride Month Discussions
We created blog posts during June to help people learn more about Pride month. The Pride at SLAC post kicked off our celebrations. Then, we shared about the Spirit of Pride, which dug into the details and history of Pride month. We ended the month with an article on pronouns including a video interview, Are Your Pronouns IDK/HUH, to help continue the discussion on gender.
Social Gatherings
Over 20 people including guests from partner labs attended a virtual event on June 24th, where we watched a creative video about important LGBTQ+ movements throughout history. We also played a short round of “guess whose baby picture this is!” to lead into a discussion about how gender identity is formed and presented.
At the very end of the month, we had our first-ever onsite Pride celebration with over 30 folx from around the Lab! This celebration included music, boba, cookies, and games. This was a very exciting moment for us.
A special thank you to everyone who worked on the Pride month sub-committee, pictured to the right! We couldn’t have accomplished all of these activities without you.
The ERG Council
During Pride month, the LGBTQ+ Council also presented to the Senior Management Team, starting an important conversation about how SLAC can support our community from the top down. We are eager to share the results of that meeting with the entire ERG membership during our next quarterly meeting on 7/16.
And, speaking of the Council – it’s changing! We are incredibly sad to see Sergio Carbajo leave our ERG leadership, but are incredibly excited for him and his new chapter in life. Sergio has had a huge influence on the ERG, from being the Council Lead to helping establish our ERG charter and piloting many important programs and activities over the years. Sergio, while we’ll all miss your presence on the Council, we are glad to know you’ll still be an active member of our ERG!
We’ve also gained a few new Council members – Kayla Ninh from LCLS (she/they), Dimitri Khaghani from LCLS (he/him), and Nikoo Samee from HR (she/her). We’re excited to welcome new voices and look forward to what we can accomplish together!
Reminders
Don’t forget to call out your community/ERG work in your performance review! You’re supporting the improvement of Lab culture, and it is important to highlight this crucial work
While we are very happy to be celebrating, we also want to acknowledge there is much work to be done at SLAC. One thing you can do to support the ERG’s work is to fill out our community feedback form and share it with your colleagues: Share with the community | Employee Resource Groups (stanford.edu)
Please connect with our ERG, it is open to everyone at SLAC! Tell your teams and networks about the ERG - here’s the link to the ERG site.
Come to our next virtual Quarterly meeting: Friday, June 16, 11am-12pm!
If you have any feedback, questions or suggestions, feel free to reach us at lgbtq_erg_council@slac.stanford.edu
By shirin@slac.st…
