LinkedIn article: The “youngest” HubSpot office is celebrating PRIDE WEEK in Berlin for the first time!

Original article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/youngest-hubspot-office-celebrating-pride-week-berlin-theresa-garbe/

We’re proud. We’re ready for Pride.

The “youngest” HubSpot office is celebrating PRIDE WEEK in Berlin for the first time!

As employees at BerSpot (HubSpot Berlin office), we are proud to say that we’re an inclusive office, which is a bit easier when you are as small as we are. We are lucky enough to live in a country where people can be who they want to be, especially in Berlin. Nevertheless, it always makes sense to start a small LGBTQ group, giving everybody a place to speak and to be heard. Starting this early means that the broader team will always accept it as something that was there from the beginning and has a focus on this community.

Activities have already kicked off: There was an outdoor movie night in June – typically for a Berlin summer evening. It was a with short notice, but people had a fun night watching “Call me by your name”. Great kick-off for our pride week in July.

Now we’re getting closer to the big event, here are the BerSpot plans: 🙂

The parade

We march in pride parades because visible support for this underrepresented community is impactful and still necessary. While the LGBTQ+ community has seen a fair amount of positive change over the past few decades, we still struggle with issues of representation, human rights, and equality worldwide. In the United States, transgender folks serving in the military are facing discrimination as well as an outright ban for those wishing to enlist; in Bermuda, marriage equality was repealed; in the UK, a bakery that refused to make a pro-LGBTQ cake took their case to the Supreme Court; in Singapore, same-sex relationships are not recognized or protected under the law.

We are inviting all HubSpotters – no matter your sexual preference, gender identity, or anything else – to walk side-by-side at Berlin Pride. (In Berlin, Pride is called Christopher Street Day in Germany, in memory of the Stonewall Riots, the first big uprising of LGBT people against police assaults that took place at the Stonewall Inn, a bar on Manhattan, New York City’s Christopher Street in the district of Greenwich Village on June 28, 1969.)

BerSpot is inviting you to bring your friends, partner, spouse, significant other, kids of all ages (yours or with permission of their parents!), your parents, roommates, other family members, dogs (with proper hydration and other things) – along for the parade.

Participation and visibility are just as crucial for allies as it is for folks who identify as LGBTQ. Marching in Pride is equally impactful both for those walking the route as it is for people watching from the sidewalk. No matter how you identify, coming together in support of (and as) a unified community is a uniquely moving experience.

What other activities we planned throughout the week?

You’ll notice the office has already been decorated on our Instagram account @hubspotdach – glitter anyone!? 😉  

• Tuesday we’re are lucky to have a speaker from Uhlala at our Lunch&Learn. Stuart is the founder of the Uhlala GmbH and will speak with us about the different projects they do for the LGBTQ community regarding finding a job or empowering people.
• Wednesday – We have some rainbow cupcakes for everybody.
• Thursday – We want to watch with you the movie “Love,Simon” and have some drinks.
• Saturday – Parade day! Look up to our schedule for the pride parade 🙂