LGBTQ+ Pride Month Speaker and Workshops 2026
In person & virtual workshops
Looking for an LGBTQ+ speaker for Pride Month?
You need an LGBTQ+ Pride month speaker who actually moves people. Not a checkbox. Not a lunch-and-learn people forget by Monday.
Equality Institute delivers high-energy LGBTQ+ keynotes and workshops for corporate events, ERGs, and leadership summits. In person or virtual. Led by keynote speaker Bernadette Smith and a diverse team of facilitators with lived experience. Every session is practical, inclusive, and built to move people from intention to action.
Choose a session below. We'll tailor it to your audience and have your team leaving with language they can actually use.
at a glance
Typical length: 60–90 minutes
Customization: Manager focus, client-facing focus, global considerations
Delivery: Interactive, practical, scenario-based
Facilitators: Diverse team, including LGBTQ+ and transgender facilitators
Over 20% of Gen Z are identifying as LGBTQ+, yet the "alphabet soup" of letters confuses many well-meaning colleagues. In this program with your choice of facilitators, we define key terms, dig into policies that affect the LGBTQ+ community, and share tools to build allies – and be an ally.
Tailored for: Managers, client-facing employees, global teams
I Will Survive: An Intersectional Exploration of LGBTQ+ History
In this workshop, we explore key milestones in 20th and 21st century LGBTQ+ history with an intersectional lens. Attendees will learn about a cast of diverse characters as we discuss the LGBTQ experience during WWII, the Lavender Scare, Stonewall Riots, the fight for marriage equality, and the recent Bostock decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. There’s even a little trivia!
Best for: Organization-wide audiences, ERGs
Express Yourself: Strategies for Year-Round LGBTQ+ Brand Engagement
A rainbow logo in June is no longer enough to build lasting loyalty with Gen Z and their allies. In this session, we use the ARC Method® to help marketing and brand teams navigate representation with confidence. You will learn how to move beyond performative gestures, build authentic year-round engagement, and protect your brand reputation by leading with values instead of trends.
Best for: Marketing, brand, and communications teams
In this keynote, Bernadette Smith helps LGBTQ+ employees and emerging leaders recognize the professional value of their lived experience and apply it with confidence. People managers will gain practical insight into how to identify, develop, and retain LGBTQ+ talent within their agencies. This is a high-energy, high-engagement keynote designed to help LGBTQ+ people feel confident and empowered to fulfill their potential as an emerging leader within your organization.
Best for: LGBTQ+ ERGs, emerging leaders, people leaders
In this workshop, attendees learn how to be trans allies. This session is led by a transgender facilitator who shares their own stories and helps attendees better understand the diversity of this community, its history, and its modern day progresses and challenges.
Tailored for: Managers, client-facing employees, global teams
We’ll lead your organization through an interactive and high energy Pride trivia event. Questions will be varied, global, and intersectional, so attendees will learn about history, pop culture, art, music and more in one engaging event.
Best for: Company-wide Pride events, ERGs
LGBTQ Pride Trivia
MEET OUR FACILITATORS
Our workshops are led by experienced facilitators with lived experience and deep expertise in LGBTQ+ inclusion, leadership, and organizational change.
Bernadette Smith (she/her)
CEO: Keynote speaker and author specializing in inclusive communication and workplace trust.
Bernadette Smith is an LGBTQ Pride Month speaker, and inclusive leadership expert, founder and CEO of Equality Institute and award-winning author of four books. Her fourth book is Inclusive 360: Proven Solutions for an Equitable Organization.
Bernadette has presented to enthusiastic audiences of CEOs, associations, entrepreneurs, leadership teams, sales professionals, account executives, marketing executives, human resource managers and more. Her expertise has been sought after by the New York Times, Forbes, the Washington Post, and Fast Company, among many others, and she’s appeared on the Today Show, the BBC, National Public Radio, and CNN.
Bernadette has been named one of Chicago’s Notable LGBTQ Executives by Crain’s Chicago Business. She loves sharing on LinkedIn and each week writes about good vibes in DEI in her newsletter, 5 Things.
Daniel Downer (he/him)
SENIOR FACILITATOR: LGBTQ+ inclusion, belonging, and leadership through lived experience.
Daniel J. Downer is a Black Queer activist and community leader who advances equity through lived experience and transformative leadership. With over a decade of impact, he brings a bold, unapologetic vision to dismantle systems of exclusion and build inclusive frameworks that center the most marginalized.
As Senior Facilitator at Equality Institute, Daniel leads dynamic learning experiences and facilitates transformative conversations with organizations to deepen understanding, shift mindsets, and foster cultures of belonging and inclusion. He believes inclusion is not a passive state—it’s an intentional, ongoing practice rooted in accountability and action.
Daniel’s work has been recognized by GLAAD with the Rising Star Award (2018), by Watermark as Most Remarkable Person in Central Florida (2020), and with an Honorable Mention in OUT Magazine’s OUT100 (2023).
Patti Flynn (she/her)
SENIOR CONSULTANT: Trans inclusion, change management, and operational leadership.
Patti Flynn is an out queer trans woman, and advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. Her transition has been a process that has led her from fearful reticence to come out, to being featured in Crain’s Chicago Business. Patti brings 25+ years of process improvement and change management experience in manufacturing, distribution, and sales/service operations to Equality Institute.
Patti is an avid endurance athlete, having finished multiple Ironman races, marathons, ultra-marathons, and her favorite race, the 6-day TransRockies Run stage race.
Erma Ishara Standley (he/they)
FACILITATOR: Gender education, community-building, and BIPOC queer experiences.
Erma-Ishara Standley is a trans non-binary artist, writer, facilitator, and community organizer dedicated to dismantling anti-Blackness and anti-trans systems. They founded The FemmeBoi, a trans non-binary multimedia company that produces affirming, entertaining and educational content centering the lives and experiences of BIPOC creators.
As a seasoned facilitator and consultant, Ishara has conducted workshops for nationwide brands and provided strategic consultation to clients across all sectors. They currently serve as an Operations Manager for a national reproductive justice organization, where they apply their expertise in organizational development and systems management. With over a decade of progressive leadership experience in non-profit management, Ishara brings Equality Institute a unique blend of skills in program development, community engagement, strategic planning, and organizational transformation.
Erika Latines (she/her/ella)
FACILITATOR: Bilingual facilitation, LGBTQ+ rights, and intersectional leadership.
Erika Latines, also known as Erika with a “K”, is a queer Latine poet, humanitarian, and activist. Her background spans from corporate finance and international business to more recently, a non-profit focused on violence prevention. She has 10 years of experience as a facilitator and trainer in areas such as equity, diversity and inclusion, queer rights, civil rights, and team building. She is the daughter of immigrants.
Erika was born and raised on the southside of Chicago, IL and lived in Mexico as an adult for 10 years. She has traveled all over the country sharing her poetry and story in English and Spanish to educate, empower and encourage youth and adults to be leaders of change.
Outcomes your team can expect
After these workshops, teams walk away with:
Clear, shared language for LGBTQ+ inclusion and allyship
Greater confidence in real workplace and client-facing conversations
Stronger ability to respond to missteps without defensiveness
Increased trust across differences, especially during moments of tension
A more consistent, values-led approach to LGBTQ+ inclusion beyond Pride month
Why Hire Equality Institute for your Pride Event?
Expertise: Founded by Bernadette Smith, featured on the Today Show and The New York Times.
Versatility: Options for keynote speeches, deep-dive workshops, and interactive trivia.
Lived Experience: Sessions led by a diverse team, including Black, Latine, and transgender facilitators.
Action-Oriented: We use the proprietary ARC Method® to provide tools people can use immediately.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Are these workshops available virtually?
Yes. All workshops are available in both virtual and in-person formats and are designed to be interactive in either setting.
Can sessions be tailored to our audience?
Yes. Workshops can be tailored for managers, client-facing employees, ERGs, marketing teams, and global audiences.
Do you offer transgender-led facilitation for trans inclusion sessions?
Yes. Our trans allyship workshop is led by a transgender facilitator who shares lived experience alongside practical tools.
Are these sessions appropriate beyond Pride month?
Absolutely. Many organizations use these workshops year-round to build skills, trust, and consistency in LGBTQ+ inclusion.
Can you support global or international teams?
Yes. We incorporate global considerations and regional context based on your organization’s footprint.
How do we choose the right workshop for our team?
Tell us about your audience, goals, and what feels most urgent right now. We’ll help you choose or customize the best fit.
Let’s get proactive about inclusion.
Diversity & Inclusion Strategists and Speakers