Power Your Pride

Every year, we celebrate Pride Month around the world in June. It’s a time to stop and reflect on the very valuable contributions of our LGBTQ+ colleagues and community—to honor the stories of resilience, strength, and love that often are forgotten at other times of the year.

This year we bring you insights from Thais Silva, a Series 3 Test Leader at HP Indigo. Originally from South America, Thais shares what it’s like to be part of the LGBTQ community and work at HP:

What does Pride mean for you?

Thais Silva: For me, Pride is a mix between acceptance and education.

In my journey, I first started accepting myself for who I am and then subsequently, proudly standing up for who I am. 

The next and ongoing step for me is educating the people in the environment in which I live and work - not just to respect my choices but also for them to promote acceptance and respect.  

How is Pride expressed in the company where you work?

Thais Silva: I am appreciative to work for organization like HP Indigo which emphasizes diversity and respect as core values. HP global launched a Power Your Pride initiative to support Pride month. I believe that my Pride has a positive effect on colleagues. People from extremely different backgrounds usually have pre-conceived notions about the LGBTQ community that can be clarified through daily interactions. I feel that I have the liberty here to create a dialogue with my colleagues that didn’t exist before.  

Do you think there is discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in hi-tech?

Thais Silva: The high-tech world is full of diversity which is a beautiful thing. However, challenging situations sometimes arise when you are working with people from very different backgrounds and points of view.

That said, even when I have faced difficult situations, my goal is always to increase acceptance. I usually try to transform such a situation into a healthy dialogue where we can agree to disagree and still respect each others’ differences and boundaries.

Hear from eleven HP employees that share their thoughts on this year’s Pride Month theme “Power your Pride” and what it means to empower the LGBTQ+ community.