This week the world’s largest global LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered) celebration is taking place in Toronto. Toronto will be the first WorldPride celebration ever held in North America, and the 4th such festival in the world. World Pride is an event that promotes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered issues on an international level through parades, festivals and other cultural activities. WorldPride brings people together from around the world to honour the past, celebrate the present, and inspire a better future for LGBTTIQQ2SA* communities everywhere. See more at: worldpridetoronto.com.
Because of the diverse nature of business owners and their employees being from many nations, ethnic and religions groups and cultures, and having different sexual preferences, office business centres should accommodate everyone. Telsec Business Centres embraces the diversity of our office space tenants and virtual office clients. That being said, we want to say that we are proud of our LGBT clients and wanted to dedicate this blog entry to them.
For many years, LGBT business owners have had to hide their sexual orientation from their customers. If not for historic events of the Stonewall Riot and the subsequent pride marches and parades, tolerance and acceptance of the LGBT community would not have occurred. Today many small business owners who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered are able to open up to their clients and customers with less fear of discrimination – because educated customers can look beyond sexual orientation and focus solely on the quality of their product or service.
Because of welcoming events such as Pride and WorldPride, more non-LGBT people are not only attending or watching as allies and supporters of the LGBT community, they are also participating in the events and parades to demonstrate their support. While a number of LGBT business owners who rent office space or are virtual office clients of Telsec Business Centres are going to be attending WorldPride activities, a number of office tenants and their staff that are LGBT allies and supporters will also be attending the various events, workshops and parades.
While yearly week-long events like Pride and WorldPride continue to bring LGBT issues to a global stage, office business centres like Telsec will continue to embrace and promote acceptance of diversity throughout the year through their actions. A client’s race, colour or sexual orientation should never be a factor on how a customer is treated or prioritized for customer service. In fact, the goal of an office provider is to ensure each customer’s business has an effective and professional office environment complete with services and various amenities.
*LGBTTIQQ2SA is an abbreviation used to represent a broad array of identities such as, but not limited to, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, transgendered, intersex, queer, questioning, two-spirited and allies.