June 1, 2022
This Pride Month, consider how love unites
Despite our differences, we’re all connected. Join Kaiser Permanente in celebrating the LGBTQ+ community, and learn more about the need for equal rights.
Every June, Kaiser Permanente celebrates Pride Month, along with many people and organizations in our communities, to show support for the LGBTQ+ community. This year, Kaiser Permanente’s theme for Pride Month is Love Unites.
“The theme reflects our organization’s commitment to the LGBTQ+ community and its allies,” said Joshua Kennedy, a Kaiser Permanente Labor Management Partnership trainer in Washington and co-chair for the Kaiser Permanente Pride business resource group. “There were several other themes considered, but Love Unites was the overwhelming favorite.”
Pride Month honors the 1969 Stonewall riots, widely considered the transformative event that led to the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. Members of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies hold memorials for people killed in hate crimes and those who died of AIDS. And parades are held across the country to call attention to the continued need for equal rights, opportunities, and acceptance.
We’re incorporating the Love Unites theme into our parade floats in Pride celebrations across our markets — including San Francisco, San Diego, and Portland, Oregon. You’ll also see the Love Unites theme used in banners and signs in our facilities, featured in television and print advertisements, and shared on social media.
Pride Month holds special significance for many employees and physicians at Kaiser Permanente.
“I look forward to this time when we can gather, celebrate, and honor our community,” said Kennedy. “I went to my first Pride parade 4 years ago, and it was such an uplifting experience for me because it was the first time I was able to be proud of who I was. I felt like I belonged and felt a shared purpose in helping our community achieve equal rights.”
Our longstanding commitment to LGBTQ+ equality
Kaiser Permanente publicly advocates for equity and inclusion for the LGBTQ+ community, often speaking up about the need for equity across health care and beyond. Our organization recently expressed its commitment to our LGBTQ+ communities, advocated for workplace protections, and stood up for the health care rights of transgender people.
For 12 consecutive years, the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, has awarded Kaiser Permanente hospitals the LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader designation for their LGBTQ+-inclusive and equitable policies and practices for patients, visitors, and employees. And for 16 years in a row, the HRC has recognized Kaiser Permanente as a Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ equality, honoring us with a perfect score for our LGBTQ+ inclusive policies, practices, and benefits.
