Personalized experiences matter—and not just when you’re pursuing customers.
They matter in our offline relationships and they matter where we work.
That’s why we developed Wunderqueers. As Wunderkind’s LGBTQIA+ employee resource group, Wunderqueers fosters community among queer employees (and plenty of allies) through education, advocacy, and joy.
In building these personalized experiences, Wunderqueers strives to create a space in which every Wunderkind employee can feel empowered, included, and above all, safe.
That’s our mission statement—and here’s some of what we’ve got planned to actualize it during Pride month 2022. But first…
Why is representation important at Wunderkind?
Diversity is often cited as crucial to a healthy work environment, but true inclusion means seeing different types of people at all levels within a company.
From a business perspective, diverse executive teams encourage employee growth and retention. From a personal one, knowing there are colleagues with lived experiences similar to your own makes your day-to-day experience at work more comfortable and enjoyable.
According to Harvard Business Review, “employees who differ from most of their colleagues often hide important parts of themselves at work for fear of negative consequences.”
Whether those differences stem from their religion, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic background, or generation, it’s up to organizations to identify their needs and take real steps to meet them.
By empowering queer employees to lead and organize internally, Wunderkind doesn’t just create a safe environment, we enable organic community building within our organization.
This is a critical charge. Here’s who stepped up to help us lead Wunderqueers:
Wunderqueers Co-Leads
Heather Hartel; Customer Success Manager (she/her)
Bradley Showalter; Senior Software Engineer, Front End (he/him)
Max Rivera; Software Engineer, Integrations (they/them)
Wunderqueers Executive Sponsor
Andres Moran; VP, Publisher (he/him)
How Wunderkind Pride Month will be different this year
With restrictions easing up, we’re super excited to resume in-person events with a hybrid approach for our remote employees around the world for Pride Month this year.
Here’s what we’ve got planned this year:
• June 1st: Movie night partnering with Somoskind featuring Paris is Burning
• June 7th: Pride yoga hosted by Heather Hartel
• June 15th: In-office Happy Hour and Comedy Night hosted by Allison O’Conor
• June 17th: Official Wunderkind Pride Party at the Stonewall Inn
• June 29th: Pride Park Day
We’re kicking off Pride Month with a full schedule of events—yoga sessions, comedy hour, and our annual Pride party.
The main difference? This year, we’re hosting our Pride party at the historic Stonewall Inn, a gay bar and historic landmark in New York City, which is also the site of the 1969 riots that helped launch the modern LGBTQIA+ rights movement.
As part of Wunderqueers’ commitment to charitable organizations, we’re also partnering with Rainbow Railroad this year for Pride month to help LGBTQIA+ people in countries with discriminatory laws escape violence, danger, and persecution in their home countries.
We’ll also be collecting donations and volunteering together for community organizations in the spirit of Wunderqueers’ three pillars: education, advocacy, and joy.
To learn more about the Rainbow Railroad or make a donation, please visit our Brightfunds Donation Page.
What has Wunderqueers done externally for the LGBTQIA+ community?
We don’t stop at fostering community within our organization. Wunderqueers (and Wunderkind) has been a sponsor of Out 4 Undergrad for the past few years.
Out 4 Undergrad’s mission is to support LGBTQIA+ college students in their transition from students to professionals, providing them with resources, equal access to opportunities, community, and mentorship.
Wunderkind both financially sponsors the annual marketing conference as well as sends Wunderqueers volunteers to serve as mentors and representatives for Wunderkind during the conference weekend.
We’ve also worked with several local LGBTQIA+ organizations, including the Ali Forney Center, the Indiana Youth Group, and God’s Love We Deliver.
The road ahead
In truth, Wunderqueers represents a fraction of the ongoing advocacy and education the larger LGBTQIA+ community participates in year after year.
By focusing on queer joy and community during Pride month this year, Wunderqueers will strike the balance between reverence for the past and appreciation for the present while also keeping an eye on the future.
We’ve come incredibly far in the past few decades in the fight for equality, but there are still obstacles ahead to face—like anti-trans legislation, continued violence towards LGBTQIA+ people (specifically black trans women), and anti-gay sentiments throughout the country.
Ideally, we’ll face them together as we continue the quest toward more widespread equality.
In the meantime, keep creating joy whenever you can—and make sure to vote in upcoming elections to secure our community’s rights at state and federal levels.