Celebrating Pride At Rocket Companies®

I started at Rocket Companies® 8 years ago. For the past 4½ years I have worked on our Global Learning training team. I get to facilitate our leadership development classes and program, and diversity, equity and inclusion classes.

I also get to facilitate courses on topics like unconscious bias and how to be an ally to others. Our “Art of Inclusion” class allows team members to explore biases and their own identities. Our “Intro to Allyship” class gives folks the “inches” they need to become an ally. These topics have been especially critical and necessary considering the social injustice we have seen for many years.

For the past 3 years, I have helped lead our LGBTQ+ Team Member Resource Network, Perspective, first as its vice president and now current president. Our mission is to create a safe and inclusive environment for the success and growth of our LGBTQ+ team members and allies through education, advocacy and support. We currently have over 1,000 members!

We do a lot of work internally, both for and with our members. We host events regularly to help educate what it means to be LGBTQ+ and to celebrate our community. We’ve held events focused on the history of pride, what “coming out” means, the intersection of sexual orientation and gender identity with religion and cultural backgrounds and focusing on days of visibility like Transgender Day of Visibility.

We also can leverage storytelling through our internal where any of us can share our stories with Rocket Companies.

As an organization, we are also directly involved with the LGBTQ+ communities in the cities where we have offices. We sponsor Motor City Pride in Detroit, Phoenix Pride, Charlotte Pride and Cleveland Pride, and have a booth at each location. As team members, we also get to volunteer at these Pride events, representing the company at our booths and marching in the parades!

I was able to volunteer for Motor City Pride a couple of times and Phoenix Pride. Both Pride events were so much fun! I got to hang out with other LGBTQ+ and ally team members that I had never met before and got to engage with the community face to face.

I was recently asked what my favorite part of Pride was. I responded with, “Just being together with the community.” During Pride, I met some incredibly inspiring people. I once met a man who came out of the closet as gay later in his life and was attending his first Pride in his 70s. It was so touching!

Through Pride and volunteering, I have made some amazing friends that I still stay in touch with today.

I am also a gay man who has a personal interest in equity and inclusion of marginalized groups. Rocket Companies has created a space for me to not only be my authentic self at work as a member of the LGBTQ+ community but has also given me the tools to be an advocate for our vibrant community that I love so dearly through training and education. I have never been able to speak about being a gay man so openly and proudly until I came here.

I am always grateful and honored to be president of our LGBTQ+ group. I feel it even more during Pride Month when I see the work we are doing for the LGBTQ+ community in and out of work.

From hosting events to celebrate and educate about our community to changing policies and providing more resources, we are “impacting the outcome” by ensuring an equitable and inclusive environment.