Special Episode: Celebrating our Pride

Erin Allard is a Platform Support Engineer at Heroku, and she's leading a conversation with Jace Bryan (who works on the Customer Centric Engineering team at Salesforce.org), Eric Routen (a family medicine resident in the New York area), and Bryan Vanderhoof (a manager on Heroku's runtime team). Each of these individuals come from different backgrounds, but they are united together in the larger LGBTQ community. After they came out, they sought ways to support other LGBTQ individuals who were not given the same opportunities as they were. Bryan focuses on helping homeless individuals, many of whom are children kicked out of their homes for being queer; Eric helps LGBTQ youth with job preparedness and substance abuse disorders; Jace shares their story of homelessness to college degree as a means of inspiring others to never give up.

With respect to intersectionality, each of the speakers identifies that they are but a sliver of the communities they represent. It's important for them to acknowledge their own privileges, while at the same team being an ally for voices not at the table. Everyone goes through challenging experiences, but it's important to continue to show empathy towards others who need help too. One way to do that is to continue to volunteer, or at least, reach out to communities, and learn for yourself what problems they have. Uplifting those who don't look like or feel like you is one of the aims of Pride Month.

Links

• HRC's Glossary of Terms helps you understand LGBTQ terminology
• The Night Ministry is an organization devoted to mitigating the suffering of homeless people in Chicago
• Ali Forney Center is an organization that helps people with job preparedness
• WeAreAmplify.org focuses on advancing empowerment through education and community for underrepresented individuals
• Power Of Us Hub is an online community for Salesforce.org customers, certified partners, and staff
• Salesforce Pride 2020 provides items for purchase, with all proceeds donated to four different non-profit organizations around the globe