Hello I'm Rich Brown and this is my personal website and blog. I'm just your simple, average, down to earth, professional, out gay man and aspiring circuit boy, living in Phoenix, Arizona with a few things to say while trying to find my place among all the scary, conservative, religious nuts in this sick and twisted world.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Phoenix Corporate Pride Group Meeting
@HOME. Last evening was the monthly meeting of the Greater Phoenix Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce's (GPGLCC) Corporate Pride group. The Corporate Pride group is a network of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) employee resource groups (ERG) at corporate, government, and higher education employers throughout the Phoenix metropolitan area. Our mission is to provide a forum to exchange ideas and best practices for the mutual benefit of all member ERGs; To provide a networking opportunity for GLBT business and academic professionals; and to encourage stronger ties between our employers and the GLBT community with the goal of increased business for our employers and increased support for our community.
We typically meet on the third Wednesday of the month, and this meeting was held at Hamburger Mary's in Phoenix. Usually the meetings consist of a 1/2 hour of networking and then a guest speaker. Our guest speakers last night were from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). They included Linda Elliot, local retired business woman, member of the HRCBoard of Governors and chair of the HRCPhoenix Steering Committee, and Donna Rose, local business woman, author and member of the HRCBusiness Council. They spoke about the HRCand the HRC's Corporate Equality Index which is a tool to measure how equitably companies are treating their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, consumers and investors
The meeting was very informative and inspiring. Donna Rose spoke about the Equality Index, the changes that the HRC Business Council has been making to the Index questions, and finally about Transgender rights and issues in our workplace. For anyone who has not seen Donna speak or has not read Donna's book 'Wrapped in Blue', Donna is a post-op MTF Transsexual with a great story to tell. You can find out more information about Donna on her website at http://www.donnarose.com and more information about the HRC's Corporate Equality Index at http://www.hrc.org.
Justin and I had a good time and as always it was nice to be able to hang out with some of our fellow GLBT co-workers and friends. We also met Mel, a friend of Donna, who was visiting Phoenix for the weekend from Philadelphia. She too was very interesting and it was funny to find out that she was living very close to where I'm originally from in Pennsylvania. It always seems like such a small world. Many thanks to Curtis, owner of Hamburger Mary's, for allowing us to once again have our meeting in the restaurant and also for the great food and appetizers he provided.
