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Diageo celebrates Pride and reminds inclusion is for ‘everyday’

Diageo has launched its Pride activities by hosting events around the world as part of its commitment to championing inclusion and diversity.

The drinks giant, which reminded its workforce in a company document that “celebrating Pride is not just the right thing to do, it’s a way to ensure our employees feel they can bring their whole selves to the workplace, every day” stated “we need society to go further” and pointed out “there is still a long way to go for this community to be accepted in parts of the world”.

As such, it concluded “our work here will not be done until acceptance is everywhere” and outlined plans for one of its employee resource groups named the Rainbow Network to help it in its quest to move things forwards.

To begin, Diageo will raise a Pride flag at over 80 sites across the world.

Additionally, the company’s North America Rainbow Network in partnership with the Smirnoff brand team will be joined by Alyssa Edwards, star of Ru Paul’s Drag Race for a virtual drag bingo event.

To mark the partnership with Queer Britain and opening of the new LGBTQIA+ Museum in London, a launch event will take place on 9 June at Diageo 1HQ with opening comments from Cristina Diezhandino, Rainbow Network’s global ally.

Plus, the Cîroc team will host a ball to honour 50 years of LGBTQIA+ UK history from across the past, present, and future.

There are also plans for Diageo’s supply chain and procurement Rainbow Network to host a series of educational events including a ‘Learning 4 Life’ event based at Johnnie Walker Princes Street aimed at upskilling hospitality teams across LGBTQIA+ venues, a virtual webinar with the ‘We Are All Able’ employee resource group to highlight intersectionality of people living with a disability and a relaunch of the Rainbow Network book club.

In Brazil, Diageo will additionally collaborate with Casa 1, a local charity to support LGBTQIA+ homelessness, donating a “sizeable” percentage of sales to help improve the livelihood of individuals, particularly those within the Trans community.

Diageo’s liquid innovation manager Kelsey Gow said: “I am so incredibly proud to be part of an organisation where I’m not only innovating on world-renowned brands, but I am also able to show up as my most authentic self every day. June is very special to me because my colleagues on the Rainbow Network team always do a fantastic job of bringing the community together through a variety of celebratory events. Pride this year is going to be one of the best yet, and I can’t wait to celebrate with everyone in person.”

Diageo’s global Scotch director John Williams explained: “Pride is an important moment for Diageo to come together to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community and for everyone to reflect and learn what more we can do as a business and society to create a more equal place to live and work.”

As part of the celebrations, Diageo recently announced a new two year partnership with Queer Britain in London, the UK’s first national LGBTQIA+ museum.

Williams added: “I’m personally looking forward to our amazing partnership with Queer Britain which celebrates the fantastic contribution the community has made to the UK’s history and culture as well as the unmissable Drag Bingo on the 8 of June featuring Ru Paul’s Drag Race fan favourite Alyssa Edwards”.

The company reiterated that it is committed to championing inclusion and has launched “Gender Identity and Expression Guidelines in over 20 countries” to ensure that it has support in place for employees who are transitioning, have transitioned, who recognise themselves to be a different gender from the gender assigned to them at birth, are gender-fluid or non-binary.

Diageo, which is a member of ‘Open for Business’, an alliance of leading companies committed to supporting LGBTQIA+ inclusion and are signatories of the UN Global LGBTI Standards of Conduct for Business, highlighted how it has been awarded full marks on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index for the 14th time. But additionally pointed out that, as a company, “the conversation continues beyond the month of June” and stated: “we’ll keep celebrating our people every day, everywhere”.

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