CISA Celebrates Pride Month with Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion
By Deputy Director Nitin Natarajan
Happy Pride Month!
Pride Month stems from an incident in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, when police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. The raid sparked an uprising among bar customers and neighbors, leading to six days of protests and violent clashes with law enforcement outside the bar on Christopher Street, in neighboring streets and in nearby Christopher Park. The first Pride Day was commemorated the following year on June 28, 1970.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is committed to using the talents of all segments of society as we enhance our ability to recruit, hire, promote, and retain a diverse and talented workforce. It is this diversity in backgrounds, education, perspective, and experience that gives our organization strength and capability.
Every day, and especially during Pride Month, CISA is proud to be an ally for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) community. We are excited to announce we are standing up an LGBTQ+ Employee Association Group this month. Our Employee Association Groups provide a new and collaborative opportunity for CISA employees to learn, share, and stand up to be allies of fairness and equality throughout CISA and our communities.
To further honor our commitment to diversity, CISA has established a number of diversity and inclusion (D&I) programs over the last year. This includes the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Special Emphasis Program, our Senior Executive Service D&I Champions group, and an expansion to our D&I focused workforce including a dedicated disability coordinator. These efforts will help ensure equal opportunity for everyone in all aspects of employment. It helps us all appreciate, value, understand, and celebrate social and cultural similarities and differences.
CISA strives to maximize diversity by ensuring that our workforce is drawn from the broadest segments of society and is poised to meet the present and future needs of our Nation. We support and encourage recruiting and retaining a workforce that represents every background and community in this country.
Let us use Pride Month to once again openly state our commitment to diversity and inclusion, especially in showing our support to the members of CISA’s LGBTQ+ workforce.
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Federal policies and protections for LGBTQ+ employees: