Written by guest author and GoodSense team member: Moumita Das Roy

Prounouns were something I learned in school. I understood the relevance of it, in a non-binary context, much later. Including my pronoun as part of my name brings together my ‘whole self’. Signalling others that I will not assume your gender unless you tell me what you want it to be. This, to me, is being an ally in creating a space for others to bring together their ‘whole selves’ too.

This is how I introduce myself when meeting someone in person – Kia ora, I am Moumita, and my pronouns are she/her. I make it a point to use my pronoun in parenthesis in my email signature. Some social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, have an in-platform feature beside your name. You don’t have to hack your name to include your pronouns, you have a spot to write yours if you want to.

I don’t assume anything about anyone, and pronouns help immensely with that, it tells me immediately how you identify and how I can respect your identity. It’s a small thing that goes a massive way. It’s not political, it’s not an agenda, it is about personal identity. It is about being who I am and recognising others for wanting to be who they are. This means so much to a person who may wish to identify as who they want to be, rather than what society perceives them to be 🌈

International Pronouns Day is observed on the third Wednesday of October and seeks to make respecting, sharing, and educating about personal pronouns commonplace.

Being Inclusive in Our Communications

As communicators and marketers, we must always be conscious that our communication is robust and inclusive. We should be able to think of our wide range of audiences and challenge the systemic norms that have been in practice for so long. And it can start with simple things, even at home. Challenging age-old notions of boys liking blue, and girls liking pink.

In languages that are more gender-neutral and inclusive, such as te reo Māori or my native language Bengali, there is no concept of a he or she. In te reo Māori, we use ia, and it means he, her, it, each or every. English is not like that. It is gender specific. And that means, as communicators, we must be more conscious.

In recruitment advertisements, for example. How difficult does it get to say ‘’they” must bring so and so skills to the job instead of a he or she? Being more conscious is easy if we choose to be and use inclusive language like “the person” or “hello people” and not “hello guys”. Most artificial intelligence platforms are trained to bring in this perspective too.

Celebrating Pride Month in June

June is celebrated as Pride Month internationally to honour the 1969 Stonewall riots and works to achieve equal justice and equal opportunity for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and the questioning. Read more about it here.

Today, celebrations include pride parades, picnics, parties, workshops, symposia and concerts, and Pride Month events attract millions of participants from around the world. Memorials are held during this month for those members of the community who have been lost to hate crimes or HIV/AIDS. The purpose of the commemorative month is to recognise the impact that individuals from this community have had on history locally, nationally, and internationally.

If you are planning the Pride Month campaign at your work or for a client, remember to keep yourselves updated with the changes happening around you. Rather than being tokenistic, the best thing to do is to consult a professional, specialising in the area. Do not be afraid to ask if you are not sure. Asking is a great place to start as that establishes an intent to get things right. Read here about various definitions and flags.

Check out Google’s Pride Month Easter Egg below:

What are Google Easter Eggs?

Google Easter Eggs are hidden functions, games or jokes that can be found in Google’s Search Engine and various other products and services. They are often seen as inside jokes and serve as a creative element to surprise and amuse users. When you search Pride Month on Google Search Bar this is the animation that you see on your screen as shown above.

Things to note when creating Inclusive Communications

Businesses can choose to create more opportunities to employ people from the rainbow community. But, in doing that, it is important to first have a look inward and make sure that it is safe to bring a young nonbinary person into that workspace. It is important to have a look at policies, monitoring, offer education, to staff and get the support of senior leaders as well. As marketers, these are a few things we could do to be more inclusive:

1. Understand what it means to bring our whole selves, our best selves to work, as an individual. It is an emerging theme in many organisations, encouraging people to be who they are at work as they would be otherwise. Working life is tailored to an individual’s interests, concerns, and commitments. What does that look like to each one of us?
2. Work closely with a DEI consultant. Many organisations have an in-house role or hire external consultants to manage these responsibilities.
3. Show empathy for people with lived experiences. Talk to them, and understand how they want to be supported.
4. Support the communications processes for rainbow certifications if there is such a requirement and how can you highlight it as a communicator?
5. Read stories about people facing challenges across different professional settings and understand how you can support, and be an ally.
6. Understand the concept of intersectionality when it comes to this community, figuring out minority within the minority. For example, the ethnic or disabled community who identify themselves in the rainbow spectrum. What are their specific challenges?

Most importantly, let us normalise showing support and making a safer environment for everyone. One of my favourite things to say about diversity and inclusion is diversity opens the room for everyone, inclusion gives everyone a chair to sit, and belonging is that sense when they become one of us. And a sense of belonging improves productivity.

On Pride Month, this is my pledge ✊🏽

“As an ally, I choose to create a SAFE and BRAVE space, for more people to feel comfortable sharing their stories of Pride.”

– Moumita Das Roy, Marketer and Social Impact Advocate

Happy Pride Month – I hope the pride month is as positive, as it is a continuing protest, for the need to be all things equal.

Email:  moumita.dasroy@goodsense.co.nz

If you’d like to talk to us about communicating to your clients please do get in touch.