The SEC’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Committee organized three virtual events for SEC staff to honor Pride Month. The first, featuring Senior Trial Counsel Jorge Tenreiro, was a fireside chat led by Senior Policy Advisor on Diversity and Inclusion Robert Marchman to discuss LGBT issues in the workplace.

The second featured Brian Bond, an executive director of PFLAG, who shared various ways that non-LGBT people can be allies in the workplace for their LGBT co-workers. During the webinar, he provided information on how non-LGBT and LGBT people could get help directly from PFLAG regarding allyship.

We can all do better. And we want to do better. We want people to be authentic, be themselves, and be comfortable.

– Brian Bond, PFLAG

And finally, on June 30 the LGBT Committee and the SEC’s Office of Minority and Women Inclusion will facilitate an interactive discussion session after viewing a TED talk by Morgana Bailey. In the video, “The Danger of Hiding Who You Are,” Bailey candidly talks about her coming out experience, having hid her gender identity and sexual orientation for 16 years. David Cohen, an attorney in the Office of Market Intelligence, Division of Enforcement, and Julie Preuitt, senior special advisor in the Office of International Affairs will lead the open discussion.

These events brought opportunities to employees at the SEC to think about the positive impact of diversity and inclusion at a workplace, touch on a variety of topics regarding LGBT community, and ask questions on how they could improve to become a better member of the SEC.

Pride Month is celebrated in the United States every year in June to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York City and to commemorate the influence that LGBT individuals have had throughout history, both locally and globally. June 2020 also marks the 50th anniversary of several LGBT community annual traditions, including Gay Pride Week and March.