Take a look at Pride at Docebo

• 3 min read

Beyond celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community at Docebo, Pride is also about representation and education.

First, let’s acknowledge the history of Pride

Prior to Pride being recognized internationally as a celebration for the LGBTQIA+ community,  Pride was a riot and a protest. 🪧

In the 1960s, homosexuality was illegal in many parts of the world and most of the United States, resulting in excessive police hostility and brutality towards the community, including frequent raids on many underground gay establishments.

In the early morning of June 28, 1969, during a police raid at the Stonewall Inn, one of the most popular gay bars in Manhattan, the patrons fought back. This marked the beginning of a series of demonstrations over the next six days, now known as the Stonewall Uprising.

This movement transcended into the first-ever Pride march in 1970, on the anniversary of the uprising, and is regarded as one of the most pivotal moments of the gay rights movement.

Every year since, Pride has been synonymous with June — commemorating the month where thousands of protestors bravely fought for the right to love who they want to love and be who they were born to be. 🌈

What does Pride look like at Docebo?

As Docebians come from far and wide, our Pride celebrations are accessible to everyone, taking place virtually and in-person, and even recorded for those who can’t participate at scheduled times.

Through our wonderful Pride employee resource group and our Pride planning committee, we were proud to offer a month of festivities 🎉, education 📖, and charity 🎗 in solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ community.

Festivities

As sponsors of Milano Pride and Athens (GA) Pride, Docebo has a walking group for both parades. These events give our LGBTQIA+ Docebians and allies the chance to come together to bond and celebrate Pride in their communities.

In our offices, we held in-person get-togethers to watch live screenings of our weekly Pride programming throughout the month. (Rainbow cupcakes included! 🧁)

Of course, no festivity is complete without a drag show. ✨

We invited Toronto artist, Baby Bel-Bel, to perform a live virtual drag performance for our Docebians (with, of course, an AMA with the lovely queen herself!)

Education

As a learning suite, education and learning are foundational to what makes us exactly who we are. 💡

Throughout the month, we held Allyship Panels — giving our LGBTQIA+ community a space to share their lived experiences with their colleagues, educate others, and develop a deeper collective understanding of the issues faced by the community and how to be a supportive ally.

Along with our panelists, we invited guest speaker Ryan Kroening, genderqueer business owner and Founder of Events By Lady K., to come share his take on allyship in the workplace and at work events. Ryan and our Docebians discussed the power of pronouns, the importance of appreciating others’ perspectives, and understanding your identity triangle.

Grace Perry’s The 2000s Made Me Gay 📚was our feature book this month for our virtual book club. With a complimentary book that all Docebians can receive, the book club offers further opportunities for education through discussions and story sharing.

Charity

Celebrating Pride means helping organizations that fight for equal rights, demand an end to hate crimes and violence, and provide assistance to those in need.

Our Pride ERG chose these organizations and Docebo donated to them in solidarity:

  • ACLU: An American organization that works to ensure LGBTQIA+ people can live openly without discrimination and enjoy equal rights, personal autonomy, and freedom of expression and association.
  • Micro Rainbow: London-based organization that provides safe housing, employment, training, and education support to LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers and refugees from Ukraine.

Our partnership with Milano Pride also includes a sizeable donation to the Rainbow Social Fund, which has done some incredible work this past year.

Pride is essential to Docebo

As a global company with Docebians everywhere, diversity and inclusion are in our DNA 🧬.

We embrace Togetherness 🫂 as one of our core values, and we live by it. We can’t imagine Docebo being as great as it is without the innovation that only a diverse team can create.

We highly value our Pride employee resource group, which holds a safe and inclusive space for the LGBTQIA+ community and allies at Docebo to coordinate and communicate their needs openly with leadership and create opportunities to engage with and educate each other.

Cultivating a culture of community and belonging is our top priority at Docebo, and we were so happy to celebrate it this month. 🌈