Celebrating Pride: LGBTQ+ Resources

At Apartment List, we stand with our LGBTQ+ employees and allies.

Pride month is celebrated in June to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots. The Stonewall riots were a series of demonstrations by the gay community in response to a police raid in Greenwich Village, NY. These riots were one of the major catalysts that moved the gay liberation movement forward.

June is an especially important month at Apartment List, as we dedicate time to support our LGBTQ+ community by hosting a company-wide Pride Week. We host numerous sessions for our employees to educate themselves on LGBTQ+ history and provide a space to celebrate our colleagues who identify as LGBTQ+. This year we’ve also hosted a fundraiser for Larkin Street Youth Services, encouraging our colleagues to help end homelessness for young people. We strive to be allies to our LGBTQ+ colleagues.

Written in collaboration with our DEI committee, we wanted to share some of our learnings and additional education resources:

Educate Yourself on LGBTQ+ Vocabulary

One of the ways you can be a better ally is through truly understanding vocabulary¹ that impacts the LGBTQ+ community.

• Assigned sex at birth: Used to describe the gender marker (male, female, or intersex) that was given to someone when they were born. It is never appropriate to ask someone what sex they were assigned at birth.
• Gender: An individual’s sense of who they are. It’s an internal sense of self and how they fit into the world. Gender is inherently self-defined. Unlike assigned sex at birth, gender is NOT: 1) Biologically predetermined, 2) Based on physical appearance, expression, or presentation, including how masculine or feminine someone appears to you, and 3) Based on sexual orientation, or the attraction or desire that someone feels (or doesn’t feel) towards others. Some examples of gender are: non-binary, genderqueer, or gender non-conforming.
• Gender expression: How someone chooses to present their gender in their attire, makeup, gestures, etc.
• Transgender: Used to describe an identity that differs from what the identity that was assigned at birth. Often abbreviated to trans.
• Transitioning: This term is associated with transgender people. It is the social, legal, and/or medical process a trans person may go through to make their gender identity fit their gender expression, presentation, or sex. Note that, this word means many different things to different people. A person doesn’t have to experience all or any of these common transitioning elements to identify as their true gender.
• Cisgender: When someone’s gender identity conforms with their assigned sex at birth.
• Pronouns: She/Her, Him/His, They/Them. These are all used to describe the gender someone would like to associate with.

Listen & Learn about LGBTQ+ Experiences

Another way to support the community is through educating yourself on the LGBTQ+ experience. Listen, watch, and read the following to support the LGBTQ+ community.

Movies

• Disclosure
• Boy Erased
• Moonlight
• The Half of It
• Love, Simon

TV Shows

• Euphoria
• We’re Here
• Pride on Hulu Docuseries
• Sex Education
• Queer Eye

Podcasts

• Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness
• #QueerAF
• Making Gay History
• LGBTQ&A
• Nancy

LGBTQ+ Mental Health Resources

• Trans Lifeline
• Trevor Project
• GLSEN
• The Center NYC