Taking Pride in inclusive communities

The Pride movement has become a way for people to celebrate progress and come together around a common goal – to foster understanding, appreciation, diversity and inclusion in communities around the world. Working closely with clients, partners and small businesses across Europe, Visa’s employee Pride network used International Pride Month to celebrate LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs and inclusive business.

 “We’re lucky to have a really dedicated team of colleagues from the LGBTQ+ collective and their allies, engaged in how our business can grow and support LGBTQ+ inclusion internally and in the communities where we live and work,” said Dan Hammerton, co-chair of the Visa Pride network in Europe. “We hit a peak of activity during Pride month, but we work as a team year-round to advise and support our business.”

In London, more than 40 employees marched in Pride on 1 July alongside LGBTQ+-owned small businesses like Waves Massage. While in Vienna, Visa partnered with Nexi | Concardis, jointly hosting a float in the largest Austrian Pride parade with over 300,000 attendees and hosting representatives from over 35 business partners. Visa was the leading digital payment partner at all of Vienna’s Pride Village booths under the banner ‘Love is accepted everywhere’.

In Madrid, as part of an ongoing collaboration between Visa and Madrid City Council, Visa was a key partner in the campaign “Orgullo de Mercados” (directly translated to ‘Pride of Markets’). This campaign, created in partnership with Diversa Global, aimed to highlight the diversity of both the products found in local Madrid markets, as well as the businesses who owned stalls, and the people who visit them.

The Visa team supported a network of more than 500 small businesses in the Chueca neighbourhood, introducing them to tools and best practices to help digitalise their business.

And across France, Belgium and Luxembourg, the team organised an engaging speaker session, in partnership with têtu•connect, focused on the challenges of creating an inclusive workplace; how diversity and inclusion is tackled in a sporting environment; and the importance of being an ally. têtu is originally a French LGBTQ+ magazine and launched têtu•connect in 2018, an agency which supports workplaces in their LGBTQ+ diversity efforts.

The session was moderated by Jamal Ouazzani from têtu•connect, and featured three amazing speakers – Astrid Guyart, a French Olympic medalist in fencing and Guillaume Semene Head of CIB Engagement and Events at BNP Paribas, both proud members of the LGBTQ+ community, as well as Mounira Boucherit, Senior Business Development Manager at Visa.

Visa supported the Zurich Pride festival in their efforts to go cashless. And members of the Central Europe Pride ERG together with employees from Deutsche Kreditbank (DKB) attended the ‘Lesbisch–schwules Stadtfest Berlin’ on 15 July – the largest gay and lesbian street festival in Europe with over 400,000 attendees. They shared a stand under the motto #gemeinsam farbe zeigen (Jointly Show Colours).