Celebrating Pride Month with HPNE
In honor of Pride Month, we celebrated by welcoming a guest speaker, made a donation to a local LGBTQIA+ non-profit organization and enjoyed rainbow treats from a local bakery.
Reflecting on Pride Month
In honor of the Stonewall riots which took place in 1969, we now celebrate Pride Month throughout June in support of equal rights for the LGBTQIA+ community, as well as acknowledging and celebrating their contributions to society.
On the year anniversary of Stonewall, Pride marches were held for the first time in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Among these marches were thousands of people in the LGBT+ community who used the event as a demonstration for equal rights. Today, around 2 million people attend the New York City Pride March alone.
Continuing our Guest Speaker Series and Paying it Forward
To celebrate Pride Month, we continued our guest speaker series, and welcomed Jen Stevens, the current coordinator of the RI Commission on Prejudice and Bias. Jen was the former editor of Options Magazine, and office manager of RI Pride. She was also a community organizer for Rhode Island’s Marriage Equality movement, and was the recipient of the 2019 Pyramid of Pride Award.
In addition, we also heard from Rush Frazier, Executive Director of the non-profit organization Youth Pride Inc. about the work their organization is doing to help individuals under 23 in Rhode Island with struggles in connection to sexual orientation and gender identity/expression.
In honor of these values, we were thrilled to present a check to Youth Pride Inc., a non-profit organization working to meet the needs of LGBTQIA+ individuals age 23 and under in Rhode Island.
Supporting Local Pride by Supporting a Local Bakery
In addition to the guest speaker event, employees also enjoyed a more playful celebration of pride with rainbow colored donuts from Glaze and Daze, a local donut shop from Johnston, Rhode Island.
We believe that in addition to educating ourselves about the people in our society, it is important to support the local businesses that allow our community to thrive as a whole. In that spirit, we would also like to highlight Options Magazine, which provides news and resources for the LGBTQIA+ community in Rhode Island.
Key Takeaways of LGBTQIA+ History and Allyship
Throughout our guest speaker event, HPNE employees learned about the history of pride and the LGBTQIA+ community in Rhode Island, the hardships that community has faced and continues to face, the Marriage Equality Movement, and how to be a supportive ally. It was emphasized that one of the greatest ways to show support is to approach each person you meet with kindness and an open-mind, and take time to listen if their lived experience has been different than yours.
At High Purity New England, we strive to create an environment that is accepting and empathetic to all people. We believe that continuing our guest speaker series for various communities is a great step to enforce these values for our employees.
To learn more about Youth Pride Inc., visit their website.
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About HPNE
As the industry needs grow, High Purity New England, Inc. continues to supply the biopharmaceutical industry with a range of innovative products, from drug discovery and development to fill-finish, including their flagship product, custom single-use assemblies, as well as pumps, sensors, bioreactor systems, storage and handling solutions and other single-use solutions. Along with their own manufactured products for the global market, they are also a distributor for more than 18 brands in North America.
