Pride-Month-Featured-Image-Hands-Holding-Rainbow-Pride-Flags Pride-Month-Featured-Image-Hands-Holding-Rainbow-Pride-Flags

Pride Month

Hitachi_Solutions_Logo by Hitachi Solutions 4 minute read

It’s sure a rainbow of a month! With the flag of many colors flying fluidly in the breeze and summer kicking into high gear with the new season blooming bright, June is National PRIDE month.

The 28th of June was a significant Saturday in 1969. It was a Saturday that marked a turning point for the LGBTQIA+ community when – in New York City, a local gay bar in Greenwich Village was unexpectedly raided by the police. Where patrons and employees were roughly manhandled – some arrested. It was a day when the LGBTQIA+ community and its supporters rose up in protest against social discrimination and harassment, staging the infamous Stonewall Uprising, and forever changing the tempo and trajectory of LGBTQIA activism.

It is in honor of that particular Saturday and the six days of riots that followed that June has ever-since been recognized as the month of pride. President Bill Clinton made it official in 1999, by declaring every June in America as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month – amended slightly by President Barack Obama in 2011 to include the whole of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Celebrating pride month is a matter of great importance to us at Hitachi Solutions. Because creating a strong, diverse and inclusive environment is not only our foothold, that is one of our founding building blocks. An integral part of how we operate, our diverse community and people are at the heart of who we are and what we do.

And here we can come full circle, back to that above-mentioned perceived arc of refracted sunshine and raindrops. Commissioned by Harvey Milk, Gilbert Baker created the rainbow flag in 1978 as a symbol of LGBTQIA+ pride. Representing life, unity, harmony, nature, diversity, spirit, hope. Similar in spirit to Hitachi Solutions own guiding principles, our pillars of strength.

Sincerity – A people-first mentality.

Harmony – Strength in our differences.

Pioneering Spirit – A focus on the broad and future landscape.

We believe it is these areas of utmost-important intersect, along with a commitment to innovation and understanding the needs of our customers, that make Hitachi Solutions a partner for life and a best in-class employer.

Join us this month of June in celebrating all that is unique, shared and extraordinary LGBTQIA+

Did you know…?

  1. Canada, Australia, and Brazil are a few countries among others that also celebrate pride in June
  2. A rainbow is actually a full circle. From the ground, we only see a semi-circle yet from an airplane, we can see a completely circular rainbow.
  3. The 1970’s symbol of gay power – the pink triangle, was originally sewn onto the shirts of LGBT prisoners at concentration camps during World War II, in an attempt to shame.
  4. Openly LGBT politicians were elected to public office for the first time in American history – beginning with Kathy Kozachenko in 1974, when she won a City Council seat in Ann Harbor, Michigan.
  5. A rainbow is a purely optical phenomenon and no two people will see it the same. Its appearance – its precise shape, arc, and the width of its color bands – will be slightly different according to the eye of the beholder.
  6. Different cities in the U.S. have their own unique theme for pride month each year.
  7. It wasn’t until June 26th of 2015 that all 50 states in the U.S. legalized same-sex marriage.
  8. According to a 2022 Gallup poll, 7.2% of Americans aged 15 years and older self-identify as LGBT or something other than heterosexual. Whereas in Canada, 4% of the Canadian population aged 15 years or older are LGBTQ2 (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, Two-Spirit, or those who identify with another non-binary gender or minority sexual identity)
  9. There are 17 different versions of the LGBTQ pride flag.
  10. A “fogbow” is formed by cloud and fog droplets. They are larger and wider than a rainbow and appear almost complete white with very faint colors visible.