A letter to Starbucks partners from Dennis Brockman, chief global inclusion and diversity officer

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We are committed to creating a safe, brave place where you are valued. That includes your right to self-identify in your own way and to be addressed by your preferred or chosen name and pronouns.

We unfortunately live in a time where our LGBTQIA2+ community continues to face hate and uncertainty. We know this is hurtful and may be weighing on many of you. I want you to know that we see you, and we stand with you.

In times like these, our responsibility to create welcoming environments feels more important than ever. It’s why we have <a href="https://s2.bl-1.com/h/dpVwd9mV?url=https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2019/starbucks-pride-a-long-legacy-of-lgbtq-inclusion/">stood up for our LGBTQIA2+ partners for more than 30 years</a> – from inclusive health coverage, to expanding voluntary self-identification for partners, to supporting organizations like Human Rights Campaign and National Center for Transgender Equality. And we continue to <a href="https://s2.bl-1.com/h/dpVwdF8X?url=https://www.hrc.org/resources/business-coalition-for-equality">advocate in support of the Equality Act</a> and <a href="https://www.hrc.org/resources/business-statement-on-anti-lgbtq-state-legislation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">oppose the discriminatory policies</a> and actions we’ve seen proposed in many states around the country.

I want to also be very honest in saying we haven’t always gotten this right – and we are committed to turning setbacks into opportunities that are meaningful to your partner experience – like launching pronoun pins across U.S. Retail this summer, expanding our self-ID options, and updating internal systems like Partner Central so they reflect partners’ preferred or chosen names and pronouns. And as we continue to make improvements, we will need your partnership and guidance when we fall short.

I invite you to join us. Here are some ways you can help make a difference:

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Additionally, as part of our ongoing efforts to create a brave space for partners to have candid discussions we will be bringing together a panel of partners and advocates engaged in the pursuit for social justice. Please join me in April for a Real Talk discussion on how we continue to support our LGBTQIA2+ partners and communities and ways you can get involved.

I know that the ongoing uncertainty can feel deeply personal, and it’s okay to need to talk to someone. All U.S. partners have access to mental health care options at <a href="https://s2.bl-1.com/h/dpVwfvLq?url=https://retailstarbucks1com-my.sharepoint.com/personal/badkins_starbucks_com/Documents/Microsoft%20Teams%20Chat%20Files/lyrahealth.com/starbucks">Lyra</a>. And remember, discrimination and harassment, including intentional misgendering, have no place at Starbucks. If you need support, please call Partner Relations.

Partners, we are in this together and we are committed to doing our part in caring for you and driving real change. Thank you for being part of the journey.

Dennis Brockman (he/him/his) svp, chief global inclusion and diversity officer

That includes your right to self-identify in your own way and to be addressed by your chosen name and pronoun.

Starbucks commitment to LGBTQIA2+: A safe third place where you are seen, heard and valued

Stories to inspire and nurture the human spirit

Starbucks Stories

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Pride began as a rebellion – an uprising against police harassment and systemic discrimination. This Pride month, as protestors all over the world take to the streets to protest police brutality and systemic racism, three LGBTQ+ Starbucks partners share their thankfulness for allies and the importance of continuing to fight against inequality.

Pride began with people saying “enough.”

A spark of resistance at the Stonewall Inn in New York City one summer night in 1969 helped ignite the already long-burning gay rights movement. Riots led to marches, marches to parades, and all of it led to more widespread awareness, activism and change.

That change led countless LGBTQ+ people, including Starbucks partners Asher Martinez, Shauna McKenzie-Lee and Catlin Perrin, to live completely different lives than they might otherwise have led – lives in which they were free to be their truest selves.

Since Pride began on the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, it has evolved to mean many things to the LGBTQ+ community and its allies. Pride can be a party – a joyous celebration of individuality, freedom and love. Pride can be a parade – a rally of voices and colorful signs promoting inclusion, respect and equality. And sometimes, like it was in the beginning and like it is this year, Pride can be an uprising – a shoulder-to-shoulder march against injustice and discrimination.

This June, during Pride month, a new conversation about change has begun to unfold. People all over the world are now protesting institutional racism and police brutality. Pride revelers, many of whom were finding ways to celebrate Pride inside due to the COVID-19 pandemic, have taken to the streets to march for a different fight – the fight against racial inequality.

Early this month, Shauna McKenzie-Lee, managing director of the Starbucks Reserve Roastery Chicago and a Black member of the LGBTQ+ community, was inspired by her young leadership team to show up in person instead of watching the protests on television. They passed out water to protestors together, and McKenzie-Lee reflected on the convergence of these important moments.

“The world sees me as Black first, and then we get into being a woman and then we get into being LGBTQ. This has been my life as a Black person in this country,” McKenzie-Lee said. “There’s a set of assumptions that come with that – pay more attention, don’t mess up, be twice as good. Those are some of the things I heard growing up. Now it feels almost like there’s closed captioning on that experience – like there’s a way to make it more accessible to more people, a way to overlay more context and to invite more people into the outrage, the discussion, the fight – and hopefully the solution.”

For all the uncertainty and struggle the year has brought, McKenzie-Lee said COVID-19 also brought an environment that helped bring real awareness and change within closer reach.

“Things slowed way down, and suddenly we were taking a long look at what&nbsp;really&nbsp;matters. The pandemic asked us all these questions about ourselves, our lives,&nbsp;our resiliency&nbsp;and our&nbsp;role in the work ahead amidst the fast evolving new normal&nbsp;– it forced us to really think about things. I think it also allowed us to see the murders of people like Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd in a more collective way. Without our usual distractions, we&nbsp;have had more of a chance to think about how it impacts us, and about what we’re going to do about it,&nbsp;what role are we really going to play,” McKenzie-Lee said.

She said she’s inspired by seeing countless people coming together in solidarity around the world.

“That fills me with hope. And, like the joy that ended up being such a big part of Pride, you see these glimmers – ‘Black Lives Matter’ being painted onto streets, celebratory and peaceful moments happening amid the outrage,&nbsp;new courageous conversations opening up or lasting longer,” she said. “This will be hard, and uncomfortable, and we have a long way to go to make systemic change, and&nbsp;we can make space for beautiful moments as well.”

This Pride, McKenzie-Lee and two other LGBTQ+ Starbucks partners shared their stories of the journeys they took to becoming themselves, expressed gratitude for the allies who stood by them along the way and talked about the importance of continuing to fight for equality for all.

Asher Martinez: Like-minded people the best part of Pride

Asher Martinez came out twice – first as a lesbian and then, later, as a trans man.

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It was a long road, becoming who he is today. A first-generation American growing up in New York City and the son of Puerto Rican immigrants, his family was loving and tight-knit, but he remembers entering his teenage years in a dark cloud of confusing and undefined angst.

“I was going through some stuff. I was really sad and definitely depressed, but I didn’t exactly know why,” said Martinez, a store manager in St. Augustine, Fla., and six-month Starbucks partner.

Then he met Kelleyann Royce, a counselor at IS-123 middle school in the South Bronx.

“She knew. She definitely nailed that I was this closeted little gay kid who needed some guidance,” Martinez said. “You don’t always see the bigger picture, you just know what you know.”

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“Royce,” as the kids affectionately call her, wasn’t overt, but repeatedly reminded her students that the most important thing you can be is yourself, and that love is love.

“Another thing she always told me is that the one thing you should always respect is time, because time is the one thing you can never get back. I hold that still to be true,” Martinez said. “Sharing who I am with people, and being able to start doing that so young, was because I knew I would never get that time back, so why should I hide and live in the shadows and be sad if I didn’t have to?”

As middle school came to a close, Martinez started to make some moves, first quietly, and then out loud. He applied to attend high school at Manhattan Village Academy, though his parents were perplexed as to why he’d chosen a school 45 minutes by train from the Bronx (they would later learn it was because the school is located in New York City’s ultra-gay-friendly Chelsea neighborhood).

At 16, Martinez came out as a lesbian – first to friends at school, where it was a “non-event.” Home was a different matter. Martinez was afraid coming out would stir cultural and religious tensions, particularly from a father who studied to be a priest when he was younger before becoming a Taekwondo instructor. His parents were surprisingly supportive. Four years later, with the addition of the “language and strength” to more fully understand and explain himself, he came out to them again, this time as a transgender man.

“First you have a gay kid, and then your girl turns into your son? I thought I was coming out to a religious and homophobic dad. But he surprised me. He’s evolved as a person, and as an ally,” Martinez said. “My story isn’t one riddled with sadness, loneliness and struggle. My story doesn’t happen enough.”

In addition to being embraced by his family and friends, Martinez said he feels supported at work too.

"(I work for&nbsp;Starbucks), because I am a person of color and I feel included.&nbsp;As a trans partner I feel seen,” he said, noting Starbucks comprehensive <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2018/they-are-lifesaving-starbucks-offers-expanded-benefits-for-trans-people/">health benefits for transgender partners.</a> "The&nbsp;Starbucks mission and values are so&nbsp;aligned with who I am. I’ve been blown away in my short time here."

Each year since moving to Florida, Martinez and his longtime girlfriend have returned to New York City for the Pride parade and festival. They won’t be making the trip this year; for the first time in half a century,<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/nyc-lgbtq-pride-march-canceled-first-time-half-century-n1187761"> the New York City pride parade is canceled</a>. Still, Martinez said, there is plenty to celebrate.

“To some people, it might not seem like a big thing – like, it’s just a parade – but it’s a little sad, to be honest. I like feeling like I can hold hands, and that it’s OK to wear my rainbow Yankee hat. I like to take a folding chair, and sit down and just … be,” Martinez said. “I’m not a party person, I just want to be around like-minded people. For me, that’s the best way to celebrate Pride.”

Still, he said, there’s plenty to be thankful for this year.

“This Pride, and for the rest of my life, I will celebrate the fact that I’m able to be visible. There are people in our communities who are not able to be visible – it’s just not safe. Being visible is a privilege,” Martinez said. “I will be in awe that I work for a company where I’m celebrated as a Hispanic person, and as a trans person and as a queer person and honestly, just as a person. I will celebrate being able to share my story with people. And I will celebrate that I am proud, and able to be proud, to be a Hispanic queer transgender man from the South Bronx.”

Shauna McKenzie-Lee: ‘We have to be exactly who we are’

When Shauna McKenzie-Lee was younger, her mother, Sharon, attended a party where the entertainment was a psychic. When it was her turn to sit with the woman, the psychic told Shauna her daughter would have a star over her head.

“My mom would tell me this story every five years or so,” said McKenzie-Lee. “I think the star, to my mom, the star probably came to represent me following my journey to be who I am.”

In November, the day before the <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2019/starbucks-in-chicago-roastery-opening-brings-journey-full-circle/">Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Chicago</a> opened its doors, McKenzie-Lee posed for pictures next to her mother on the building’s airy top floor. Both women beamed – the mother, who was watching her only child lead the opening of the largest Starbucks in the world, and the daughter, who was able to do so without hiding any part of who she is. Hovering above both of them? A large, neon star. Yes, it’s part of the Roastery logo, but still … whoa, right?

McKenzie-Lee laughed. “We both looked up and I reminded her of that story. It’s almost like reinforcement that I had made the right decisions to get to that moment. Everything kind of came full circle.”

She grew up in Cincinnati, part of a tightknit, spiritual family. Her parents divorced when she was young, though they stayed on positive terms, and McKenzie-Lee and her mother moved in with her grandmother.

“The influence of my mom’s mom in particular – she was born in 1919, widowed early, and had two kids to raise as a single, black woman. She just did it, and made it look easy, and rooted all of us in church and spirituality. As a child, I grew up knowing I could go out but no matter what had to have my butt in a chair for Sunday school,” said McKenzie-Lee, 46. “She taught me that we’re all plugged into something bigger.”

As a teenager, McKenzie-Lee grappled with the beliefs of some in the religious community that gay people should face repercussions or punishment for being who they are. If you’re supposed to love and care for everybody, she wondered, doesn’t that include gay people? She had her first girlfriend in high school – a basketball teammate.

“It was a long-term relationship, but also very hidden. I went to prom and homecoming with male basketball friends. Even for myself, I was trying to understand – is this who I really am? On the surface, things were good – I got good grades. I played sports. But it was a challenging time,” she said. “Seeking the approval of my grandmother, all of that had me covering up who I was for so long.”

At 20, she finally got the courage to come out to her grandmother.

“I had built this up for months. In essence, I was preparing to lose my grandmother. That’s what I thought would happen,” McKenzie-Lee said. “She certainly had a few things to say. But ultimately, she just hugged me. She lived to be 94. For the rest of her life, we were able to operate not just in love, but in transparency.”

“I know she experienced some grief, that it was not a traditional path her child was going to follow. She thought I would get hurt and punished and wouldn’t advance in a career. But she was also the one who gave me the foundation to know I should continue to try to be who I am,” McKenzie-Lee said. “We have to be exactly who we are. There’s so much power in that. Fear is something that we somehow think will change or shift or go away as we get older, but it doesn’t. Whatever we need to do, we have to just do it scared. Don’t find yourself losing time.”

McKenzie-Lee and her wife, Denise, have been together for 15 years and married for five. They’ve been to Pride celebrations in Toronto, Minneapolis, Portland and Chicago. Though she will miss marching in Chicago’s parade with Starbucks partners this year, she believes we can look for new experiences, ones that could end up being just as meaningful as the ones we’re missing this year.

“We can celebrate the opportunities we have to reimagine ourselves. We can celebrate the ways we still have to connect. We can celebrate kindness – I believe kindness is cool. There’s an Alice Walker quote I love: ‘Keep in mind always the present you are constructing. It should be the future you want.’ Now, more than ever, that’s on my mind,” McKenzie-Lee said. “Where do we want to be on the other side of this? Let’s make sure it’s surrounded with people who support us. Let’s make sure it’s having taken care of ourselves and each other.”

Catlin Perrin: ‘Community can mean lots of things’

Catlin Perrin grew up in an immersive religious community in California. He attended a Christian high school and studied theology at a bible college.

“It was the kind of immersive that’s not just your church, but your whole world – your social life, your education, everybody you know, just … identity,” Perrin said. “And in the particular vein of Christianity I grew up in, being gay was considered a sin. There was a ton of shame attached to it. For me, it was really repressive to feel my attractions were bad, these things I can’t control, as was my gravitation toward certain people and relationships, and to realize I’d have to either kind of ignore it as I grew older, or acknowledge it but never be comfortable acting on it, and to watch friends having these full and open relationships and feeling those were roads I could never access.”

Perrin, 33, &nbsp;compartmentalized his sexuality, and said he started thinking of himself as pieces of a person rather than a whole – including some pieces that didn’t quite fit together, and others that felt broken altogether.

One night shortly after college, he was talking with his roommate, Nathan, in their new apartment. There was no furniture yet – they’d just moved in – so they were sitting on the living room floor, talking and drinking wine. Catlin decided to come out to him. Given their similar upbringing, his friend and roommate could have reacted in any number of ways.

“We talked about how I always felt compartmentalized, and how I could reconcile my faith and my sexuality and come into my own as a whole person. We drank wine and we cried it out. It was big. Nathan was massively important in my coming out experience and to my long journey to feeling complete,” Perrin said. “When I look back, I had a lot of perfectly legitimate reasons to be scared and hesitant to talk to anybody about what I was going through. But when you start to crack that, you will find there are people around you who get it, who will love you regardless. Find those people. Talk to them. And recognize those people are going to be on a journey, too, and that you can help inform their perspective as well, both now and further down the road.”

Perrin was pursuing a teaching degree when he decided to take a semester off and apply for a job at Starbucks, mainly for the health insurance. Now, 14 years later, Perrin is a district manager of 18 licensed Starbucks stores in Los Angeles.

Like his conversations with Nathan, Starbucks would also prove instrumental to Perrin finding the courage to come all the way out. Shortly after he started his job, he mentioned someone he was seeing to a co-worker. He was careful not to use pronouns – but when they asked if he was dating a male or female, he chose to answer honestly. “

“Her reaction was kind of ‘cool, whatever.’ It was almost blasé, which was powerful. That has stuck with me,” he said. “My growing up and coming out and becoming a whole person and Starbucks, they’re all tied together. That confidence got built here. At Starbucks I got to see adults who were successful in their careers and in same-sex relationships that were loving and caring, and they were the first ones I ever saw. So many people at Starbucks will not only accept you, but cheer for you and be in your corner and want to see you be successful.”

Perrin typically celebrates Pride outside enjoying the beautiful Southern California weather, barbecuing with friends and attending the parade. This year, more than ever, he’s looking for opportunities to support people and communities still fighting for equality.

“When I think about the arc of the gay rights movement, Pride means a lot of things – a celebration, a victory march, a resistance rally, a call to be better and more inclusive and more equitable,” Perrin said. “Pride is also community, and community can mean lots of things, too. In the middle of a pandemic, that community will look really different than it did a few months ago – I mean, there are Zoom night clubs with people dancing around in their living rooms. And there are all these glimpses of the better sides of humanity, and how we are figuring things out together as things have gotten really wild. For me, as an LGBTQ community, we also have a responsibility to keep fighting for equality in places and communities and for people for whom it’s not happening. There’s a lot of work left to do there. Pride marks that progress, continually.”

Pride in solidarity: Starbucks LGBTQ+ partners stand against racism - Starbucks Stories

Pride in solidarity: Starbucks LGBTQ+ partners stand against racism

Pride began as a rebellion – an uprising against police harassment and systemic discrimination. This Pride month, protestors all over the world take to the streets to protest police brutality and systemic racism.

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In 2017, the city of Philadelphia created a new version of the rainbow Pride flag, adding black and brown stripes to symbolize the intersectionality of LGBTQ+ rights and racial equality movements. Starbucks raised the Philadelphia Pride flag above its Seattle Support Center today to commemorate Pride month and our reinvigorated national drive for racial equity.

Salicia Cunningham bought a large flag to carry with her as she marched in the recent “All Black Lives Matter” protest in West Hollywood.

The flag looks very much like a traditional rainbow Pride flag but with a black and brown stripe at the top. Cunningham said this flag – nicknamed the “Philadelphia Pride flag,” as that’s where it was created and first raised in 2017 – has become a powerful symbol in her life.

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“It’s my flag! It’s my movement. It represents my hardships and my struggles,” said Cunningham, a six-year Starbucks partner who manages a store in Los Angeles.

Each year, Starbucks commemorates Pride month by raising a rainbow flag above its Seattle Support Center. This year, the company raised the Philadelphia Pride flag to mark the intersection of Pride month and a renewed movement for racial equity.

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“This Pride month has been hard. I’ve been active with pride celebrations annually, but it’s always felt like just that – a celebration. Because of the racial injustice that has come to light, I’ve had to come to terms with some very serious issues that I was unaware of or have been desensitized to in the past.&nbsp;I’ve been hurting, and my family, my partners and my friends have expressed this as well,” said Cunningham, a member of the company’s Pride Alliance as well as its Black Partner Network. “But through all of this I realize I’m not alone, and the raising of this flag demonstrates that. I’ve always felt Starbucks is inclusive, but I’ve been blown away about the company’s ability to be there for its partners. I feel seen, heard, and valued.”

Cunningham and her wife of 11 years (Shay, also a Starbucks partner) have two young children. Her younger son, 5, doesn’t understand much of what’s happened this month, but her older son, 7, has lots of questions.

“He’s seen the protests, the fear and the sadness,” Cunningham said. “I’ve told him we will not be bystanders. That acts of kindness will go a long way. That he can be a part of the change that our world needs. It’s a heavy load for a 7-year-old, but I know he will take my words and apply them. I only hope other families are having the same conversations.”

Sharif Kelly, a Starbucks store manager in the Atlanta area, was thrilled to see the Philadelphia flag raised. As a Black man who is married to a Black man, he, too, sees himself in the flag. It also reminds him of a couple of important things, he said. First, that even within the progressive LGBTQ+ community, there can be a racial and equality gap, and the flag is a way “to bring us closer together.” And second, that the history of the LGBTQ+ rights movement is full of powerful moments in which Black people led the charge for equality – people like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/obituaries/overlooked-marsha-p-johnson.html">Marsha P. Johnson</a> at the Stonewall Riots.

“Even with all this change there is still more work to do, especially protecting our Black trans friends and family members, as they are being killed at an alarming rate as well,” said Kelly. “Starbucks has always and will always be a leader of being inclusive. In the last few weeks, our leaders have shown up for the partners and the community with Black Lives Matter shirts and releasing statements that uphold our mission and values. We’ve had difficult conversations to&nbsp;move the needle in the right direction, making Juneteenth a paid holiday, and now raising the Philadelphia Pride Flag. I feel seen, heard, cared for and now invited into the room more than ever with the raising of this inclusive flag for Pride month.”

The original Pride flag was created by Gilbert Baker, an Army veteran and artist who moved to San Francisco in the early 70s just as the gay liberation movement was gaining speed in part thanks to figures such as Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California history. Baker, a flag maker, wanted the gay liberation movement to have a powerful emblem beyond the <a href="https://time.com/5295476/gay-pride-pink-triangle-history/">inverted pink triangles</a> widely used at the time, a symbol Nazis used to mark gay prisoners in concentration camps and one later reclaimed by the LGBTQ+ community. Gilbert sewed a flag with a rainbow of eight stripes, each color symbolizing a different meaning, that debuted during the 1978 San Francisco Pride parade. The rainbow flag was a hit, and <a href="https://www.syracusenewtimes.com/rainbow-flag/">quickly became the banner of a global movement</a>.

Fast forward to 2017 in Philadelphia. After a couple of widely reported instances of racism within the city’s “Gayborhood” left the community jarred, a woman named Amber Hikes – then the executive director of the city’s Office of LGBT Affairs – decided to develop a new version of the Pride flag, adding a black and brown stripe to the rainbow to address this tension and to promote unity. This new Pride flag was raised over <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/controversy-flies-over-philadelphia-s-new-pride-flag-n772821">Philadelphia City Hall during Pride month in 2017</a>, and though it was not without controversy at the time, the flag continues to grow in popularity for the inclusivity and intersectionality it represents.

“To me, it meant the city was saying, ‘We are with you,’” said David Vaughn, Jr., a Starbucks store manager in the Philadelphia’s “Gayborhood.” “The fact that the city flies that flag shows tolerance, love, peace and respect for all. And now the flag is in Seattle! The work has just begun, but what is clear to see is that Starbucks is willing to do the work. I feel like Starbucks and Philly are both always ahead of the game when it comes to the LGBTQ community.”

Jean Hippensteel, a store manager at a Starbucks a block from Philadelphia City Hall, vividly remembers the moment the new flag was unveiled and raised above the city. It forced the Philadelphia LGBTQ+ community, which believed itself to be inclusive, to confront its own discrimination and biases around race, she said.

“It was a grand moment in Philadelphia's gay pride story, and now it’s a proud moment in Starbucks Pride history,” said Hippensteel, who has been married to her wife, Eileen, for 24 years. “Gay rights would not be where they are without allyship. If people didn't stand up for us, I would not be able to be married to my wife. It is my responsibility to be an ally for Black Lives Matter, and our Black partners, at this moment in time. For the LGBTQ community, this is our moment to be allies – our moment to give what others have given us for decades.&nbsp; Let's make sure we get it right.”

Raising a symbol of allyship: Philly Pride flag celebrates unity, intersecting movements - Starbucks Stories

Raising a symbol of allyship: Philly Pride flag celebrates unity, intersecting movements

In 2017, the city of Philadelphia created a new version of the rainbow Pride flag, adding black and brown stripes to symbolize the intersectionality of LGBTQ+ rights and racial equality movements.

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By now it has become an annual tradition, a symbol of the LGBTQ movement and a celebration of Pride. Today, Starbucks raised its Pride Flag high above its headquarters at the Starbucks Support Center, as it has <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2014/for-the-first-time-starbucks-raises-the-pride-flag-atop-its-headquarters/">each June since 2014</a>. At 19 by 38 feet, the rainbow banner is larger than the average Seattle apartment, and among the largest ever made to recognize lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer inclusion.

“I am so honored to be here today at the rising of our Pride Flag,” said <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/leadership/rossann-williams/">Rossann Williams</a>, who leads retail operations in more than 8,000 company-operated stores across the United States. “I'm so proud to work for a company where we are all seen and respected as individuals. This has been woven into the fabric of our culture for almost 50 years. That's who we are.”

Starbucks’ support for the LGBTQ community <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2019/starbucks-pride-a-long-legacy-of-lgbtq-inclusion/">goes back decades</a>, offering health benefits for same-sex domestic partners of part- and full-time employees since 1998. More than 10 years ago, Starbucks established Workplace Gender Transition Guidelines to support transgender partners and added coverage of gender reassignment surgery to the company’s health benefits in 2013, and <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2018/they-are-lifesaving-starbucks-offers-expanded-benefits-for-trans-people/">expanded benefits in 2018</a>. The company has also spoken out in <a href="https://news.starbucks.com/news/starbucks-applauds-supreme-courts-ruling-on-marriage-equality">support of marriage equality</a>, helped create <a href="https://news.starbucks.com/news/safe-place-program-at-starbucks">safe spaces</a> for victims of anti-LGBTQ-related crimes and harassment, and <a href="https://news.starbucks.com/views/starbucks-commitment-to-inclusion">urged equal treatment for the LGBTQ community.</a>

Starbucks partners have been powerful advocates for the LGBTQ community both inside and outside the company from the beginning. The <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StarbucksPride/">Starbucks Pride Alliance Network</a>, which held its first informal meeting in 1996, now includes thousands of partners in chapters around the world.

Williams underscored the company’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion as a core part of its mission and values. “There’s never been a more important time for all of us to stand together however we self-identify. We’re all in this together,” she said.

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<a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2019/love-meet-the-designer-of-the-starbucks-pride-cup-people-are-buzzing-about/">LOVE: Meet the designer of the Starbucks Pride cup people are buzzing about </a>

Cloudy with a chance of rainbows: Pride Flag hoisted at Starbucks HQ - Starbucks Stories

Cloudy with a chance of rainbows: Pride Flag hoisted at Starbucks HQ

Starbucks raised its Pride Flag high above its headquarters at the Starbucks Support Center, as it has each June since 2014 as a symbol of the LGBTQ movement and a celebration of Pride.

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LGBTQ

LGBTQ - Starbucks Stories

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Our aspiration is to be people positive—investing in humanity and the well-being of everyone we connect with, from our partners to coffee farmers to the customers in our stores and beyond.

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Coffee is at our heart, inspiring our craft and driving innovation—in our drinks, our food, our stores and new ways we bring the Starbucks experience to you wherever you are.