Celebrating LGBTQ+ Team Members Across the True Portfolio

At True, we proudly celebrate and support Pride Month and the LGBTQ+ team members across our portfolio. We see Pride as an exclamation mark of empowerment, self-expression, and recognition that love and identity come in all shapes and forms. 

We’re honored to celebrate True company founders who have been featured in Fast Company’s Queer 50 list for 2021: Vivian Chu, co-founder of Diligent Robotics (maker of the incredible hospital robot Moxi), and our very own Amy Errett, founder of Madison Reed and an investor here at True. 

In addition to Vivian and Amy’s awards, Pride Month is being celebrated across True Portfolio companies as they honor their own team members and raise awareness on important issues that continue to shape the LGBTQ+ experience. 

Airship: A Pride Month Reading List for Inclusive Thinking 

The team at Airship has made it incredibly easy for team members to learn about the history of Pride Month and those who have helped to forge equality and workplace protections for LGBTQ+ individuals. Employees can follow the team’s #prideship channel on Slack to be alerted of resources like where to learn more about gender pronouns, ways to make the workplace more inclusive, a list of Black LGBTQ+ businesses to support, and more. 

“We hope to provide Airship’s LGBTQ+ employees with a space to share concerns, events, wins, or anything else related to their experiences,” said Jade Westover, the leader of Airship’s Prideship employee resource group (ERG) and an engineer for the company’s internal tools team. The Pride Month resources were a collaboration between Prideship, Westover, and Airship’s Diversity Board and human resources team. 

Tray.io: A Watch Party for Talks Exploring Inequalities and Identity

The Tray.io team is hosting a watch party where team members can come together to view and discuss videos that give a window into the LGBTQ+ experience, inequalities, and explorations in identity. These include the TED Talks This Is What LGBT Life Is Like Around the World and Toilets, Gowties, Gender and Me. 

The Tray.io team modeled the watch parties around a similar set of viewing parties co-hosted by its Diversity & Belonging Council and the company’s “Traysians” community during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. 

“Our ‘Traynbow’ LGBTQ+ group thought the low barrier to entry of watching meaningful content alongside informal conversation made for a comfortable environment for folks to get to know each other and learn something new,” shared Kat Goussen, senior people operations partner at Tray.io. The team is also hosting presentations that explore intersectional allyship, the history of Pride, and what happened with the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village in the late 1960s. 

“We know it can be hard for people to be themselves in professional environments,” Kat continued, “and Pride gives us an opportunity to show people that, at Tray.io, being out and proud means having a community of authentic support to have your back.”

Handshake: A Panel Exploring LGBTQ+ and Black Resilience

As part of both their Pride Month and Juneteenth programming, the Handshake team is hosting an open panel discussion called “Finding Joy in the Struggle.” It’ll focus on intersectionality, social justice, and the joy of being one’s true self. The panel was forged by the company’s LGBTQ+ group and Wakanda Community, an ERG started by Handshake’s Black team members.  

“Our hope is that this is an opportunity for folks to engage in solemn but meaningful conversations in an effort to honor these historic events,” shared Elizabeth Cherner, workplace experience manager at Handshake. “While we recognize that our current society is far from where we need to be, we hope these conversations act as a positive step in honoring these communities, not only this month but indefinitely.” 

Thank you again to all the teams who shared a window into their celebrations and how they’re raising awareness around how Pride Month came to be. We hope it gives others ideas of how to honor and support their team members while amplifying the historical paths forged by those who came before us.