Pride 2023: Your Story, Your Power

NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / June 5, 2023 / T. Rowe Price:

PRIDE @ T. Rowe Price, our associate-led business resource group (BRG), is hosting an event focused on how inclusive storytelling principles and active listening can help build a safer, more inclusive workplace and support the LGBTQ+ community in the ongoing struggle for inclusion and equality.

As we mark Pride Month as both a personal and communal celebration of visibility, perseverance, and dignity, a few of our associates highlighted the importance of creating space to share their lived experiences as members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community.

Christian Cephas, Administrative Services Team Lead, Technology Business Management

Pride to me means living life every day as my true, authentic self, without the fear or worry of the thoughts and opinions of those around me. I'm a pansexual transgender African American male, and there are so many different boxes that I don't fit into that someone meeting me for the first time would never know at first glance. And honestly, I love it because it has allowed me to enter many spaces that others like me have not been able to join to advocate and educate about the LGBTQ+ community and beyond. I take pride in the many layers of me and hope that I can continue to use my voice and platform to educate others.

Emily Davidson, Brand Historian and Corporate Archivist

Until the Bi-Visibility Day event last year, I felt invisible as an LGBTQ+ person-at work, out in the world, even within the PRIDE BRG-because I'm "just" bisexual and my partner of over five years is a man. When I'm walking down the street holding his hand, I'm being my authentic queer self, but the world sees me as just another heterosexual woman. In the past, when I've been out with a woman, I'm just another lesbian at the farmer's market. I've known who I am for a long time. I'm not confused or closeted. It's not "just a phase." So this year, I've decided to own my identity (even if no one else can see it) and accept that, yes, Pride is for me too.

Mary Louise (ML) Dixon, Regional Investment Consultant, U.S. Intermediaries

All my life I've embraced my identity in communities that tend to be more resistant to change, whether it is living in affluent suburban areas of New England or spending my career in financial services. What I have found is that telling my story not only breaks down stereotypes and misconceptions for those with minimal exposure to the LGBTQ+ community, but it also provides a sense of belonging and validation for those struggling on a similar journey. In light of recent patterns of discrimination across the country, hopefully my voice can help change a few minds to broader acceptance and inclusivity. I take pride in representing a firm like T. Rowe Price that made diversity an initiative long before it was an industrywide trend.