#PrideIsHappening

Around the world, June represents Pride Month - where people come together to celebrate love and acceptance in all its forms. Millions around the world took part in parades, marches, and festivities but for us, Pride is more than that. While many took part physically, the conversation on Twitter crossed borders, uniting people from all over the world in determination. Through TwitterOpen, our LGBTQIA Employee Resource Group, we  took a moment to measure both the progress occurring everyday and the work that still needs to be done to achieve the kind of world we strive for. As people around the world united on Twitter to celebrate and support LGBTQIA communities, we participated in and hosted events to commemorate this month.

We kicked off Pride Month by unveiling the new Emojis. This year the Emoji included pink and blue stripes, to reflect our allyship with Trans people, which appeared every time someone Tweeted out with #PrideIsHappening #Pride2017  #LoveIsLove Throughout the month, these hashtags were used over 6 million times.

On June 2, Tech Proud, an organization which helps young LGBT people enter the tech industry, spent the day at Twitter. They got to hear from our University Recruiting team and members of TwitterOpen, and get a glimpse of what opportunities lie ahead.

We also invite a couple influential Tweeters to our San Francisco office this month, giving employees the chance the hear from them. On June 2, Roxane Gay participated in a Q&A session, and on June 15, we hosted a screening of Gigi Gorgeous’ new documentary.

In our New York Office, Podcast Hosts Kathy Tu and Tobin Low (Nancy Podcast) and Ashley Linder, Jade Salazar, and Chelsea Shorte (Tagg Nation) joined TwitterOpen in a conversation about Protecting Pride and the ways to ensure that the authenticity of Pride is not lost.

Back in San Francisco, we hosted our annual fundraiser supporting the Trevor Project.

This month in our U.S. offices, we also did our part to make sure our bathrooms were as inclusive as possible.

Now the staple of Pride Month, millions of people from around the work took part in marches around the world, taking to the streets to celebrate love in all its forms. Twitter team members joined millions of people, marching in Dublin, Toronto, and San Francisco.

Twitter is where inclusion lives, empowering voices and communities to express themselves and connect, and that’s something that we wanted reflected in our activations as well. We know the work doesn’t stop here. While the month was cause for celebration, it was also a moment of reflection for what needs to be accomplished. Pride Month may be over, but our commitment to supporting the LGBTQ community and providing a safe space does not end in June. The fight for equality never ends.