Making sure our pride shines all year round
Pride Month is a fantastic opportunity for us all to show visible support for the LGBTQ+ community and stand up for the right to be your authentic self. You’ve probably seen your fair share of companies adding splashes of color to their social media profiles in June. Maybe you've even gotten your hands on some of the branded rainbow swag that companies dole out during Pride Month.
While we love to go big in June too, we know that Pride is more than a moment in time. That’s why we’re continuously partnering with our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Center of Excellence and our LGBTAllies employee resource group (ERG) to encourage pronoun use, inspire open dialogue, and offer learning opportunities to engage our team members. The same is true for our inclusive benefits, because gender-affirming care and fertility treatments for same-sex couples aren’t just needed one month out of the year.
Pride is a huge part of our global culture of inclusion
Strategy, guidance, and training
Led by our DEI Global Council, we integrate the LGBTQ+ community into our initiatives, including partner solutions and supplier diversity, while providing leadership tools and inclusive learning opportunities to foster allyship and mitigate unconscious bias.
Celebration events and activities
We participate in Pride Month globally and continue hosting panels, advocacy activities, volunteer opportunities, and much more throughout the year.
Tracking and transparency
Through our Global Inclusion Index, we're able to evaluate representation across the enterprise, measure inclusion, and share results through our annual DEI Progress Report.
Looking back on Pride 2024
Thousands of team members and leaders from around the world joined together once again during the month of June to strengthen our commitment to the LGBTQ+ community. Here’s a look at some of the events and activities our team members participated in during our most recent Pride Month festivities:
- Our Global Pride Celebration featuring Dame Inga Beale
- Local Pride parties and picnics in 18 locations across five continents
- Flag-raising events in the U.S., U.K., Italy, Spain, Lithuania, Thailand, and more
- Allyship workshop led by DEI expert Jennifer Brown
- Drag Story Hour
- Pets with Pride photo competition
- Wear the Rainbow, where we all dress in one color of the rainbow each day
“June is all about lifting up LGBTQ+ culture, voices, and lives. With the increasing levels of divisiveness that we see in the news, it could be easy to lose sight of how spectacular our community really is. But we won’t let that happen. We’re stronger together when individuals choose to act, and it starts with you. Whether you identify as LGBTQ+ or as an ally, we encourage all our team members to be as loud and proud as they can be. We remain steadfast in our pursuit for inclusion and equality, in June and throughout the rest of the year. But during Pride Month, our community truly shines!”
Laurie (LK) Kozbelt
Director of Quality, Global Consulting Services
Chair and co-founder of LGBTAllies
Our history of pride
Prior to the pandemic, our Pride Month celebrations centered around parades taking place in the cities closest to our U.S. office locations. We rallied our team members in those areas, sponsored floats, and marched together for LGBTQ+ rights and visibility. Then in 2020, we quickly had to pivot our plans and transition to a virtual approach. We traded in our Pride poster boards for colorful Teams backgrounds instead and launched all kinds of new programming, like allyship training sessions, Pride Trivia Night, and more. Today, we’re applying what we learned during the pandemic to host hybrid events and activities that enable everyone to participate.
Following the lead of our ERG
The driving force behind our LGBTQ+ initiatives is our LGBTAllies ERG. Spearheaded by a small but dedicated leadership team and supported by more than a thousand engaged members, our ERG works all year around to make our company one of the most diverse, inclusive, and LGBTQ-friendly businesses in the Fortune 500.
LGBTAllies hosts activities that educate our team members and empower them to support LGBTQ+ people locally and globally through meaningful advocacy and allyship. More importantly, they create space to express ourselves, share our stories, and listen to the experiences of others. It’s through the tireless efforts of this group that our culture continues to evolve in all the right ways.
Partnering with The Trevor Project to support LGBTQ+ youth
The Cencora Impact Foundation works to support partners that address the needs of the LGBTQ+ community on a consistent, ongoing basis. One such partnership is with The Trevor Project, the leading suicide prevention and crisis intervention nonprofit organization for LGBTQ+ young people. The Trevor Project has trained staff and volunteers who answer calls, chats, or texts from LGBTQ+ young people struggling with issues like depression and suicide ideation.
While enabling The Trevor Project to expand the impact of their life-affirming services, our relationship is a two-way street. Cencora team members have had numerous opportunities to engage with the organization, including a very successful allyship training in April 2024. More than 140 attendees from across the enterprise joined the session to increase understanding and allyship to promote positive health outcomes for LGBTQ+ young people. The Trevor Project also provides Cencora team members with supplementary resources and guides to help our team members live our purpose by boldly supporting the LGBTQ+ community and creating more inclusive spaces where everyone can thrive.
While enabling The Trevor Project to expand the impact of their life-affirming services, our relationship is a two-way street. Cencora team members have had numerous opportunities to engage with the organization, including a very successful allyship training in April 2024. More than 140 attendees from across the enterprise joined the session to increase understanding and allyship to promote positive health outcomes for LGBTQ+ young people. The Trevor Project also provides Cencora team members with supplementary resources and guides to help our team members live our purpose by boldly supporting the LGBTQ+ community and creating more inclusive spaces where everyone can thrive.
Supporting LGBTQ- owned businesses
We proactively seek out diverse suppliers, especially those that are owned and operated by LGBTQ+ people. Not only is supplier diversity the foundation of a competitive economy, but it’s also one of the best ways to tap into the latest innovations, as well as products tailored to communities where their needs aren’t being met by the mainstream. By connecting with LGBTQ-owned suppliers, we get closer to the community so we can ensure we’re giving our customers the products, solutions, and guidance they need to deliver the best care possible to LGBTQ+ individuals.
Are you an LGBTQ+ business owner? Learn more about our supplier diversity program or become one of our diverse suppliers by registering here.
Recognized as an Equality 100 business
We earned a top score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2023-2024 Corporate Equality Index, the nation’s foremost benchmarking survey and report measuring corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ+ workplace equality. This achievement is the result of many actions we’ve taken over the years to foster an inclusive culture at Cencora — from providing equal benefits and protections for all employees to offering voluntary self-ID options to requiring all our team members to complete annual inclusion trainings.
