Since it's beginning, Button has always been dedicated to celebrating diversity. When we were only 20 people we started our first diversity committee and have consistently put on events that create spaces for minority communities to come together to chat and meet one another. At Button, we strongly believe that diversity is our strength and so when Pride rolled around this year we knew we had to have a party to celebrate.

Since we are a small company we have yet to form an official affinity group for LGBTQ+ Buttonians, but several queer identifying among us sit on our diversity committee and decided to form a task force to see this project through completion. We met weekly and decided on the format, panel, and theme of the party, which was Beyoncé Lemonade themed (it was awesome). We stayed late to put together decorations, sent countless emails to other tech companies personally inviting their LGBTQ groups to join us, and made sure our panel reflected the diversity of our community. Throughout the planning, we were always assured by our leaderships team that they had our backs and were excited to attend themselves. When the date came we pulled off a great event with over 150+ RSVPs and pitchers of "Pray You Catch Me" cocktails drank.

The lesson learned from our experience is that with ally support and the company backing to pursue diversity, these important events can happen from a grassroots level, even within a small team.

Our panel chatted about some of the challenges facing LGBTQ techies in the workforce as well as some specific challenges that queer women and trans people face within the LGBTQ community at large. Our wonderful panel included:

Below are some photos from the event. We had such a blast celebrating the LGBTQ+ community and thank everyone who helped make the event so special. See you next year!