Good morning, everyone, and thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to participate in our quarterly info bites sponsored by Quest Equality and Inclusion Council and produced by your employee resource groups. We currently have four active ERGs working to create a safe space for Quest employees to discuss matters pertaining to members of their community and are sponsored by incredible allies and executive leadership at Quest. Quest Colors, Quest, Quest Mines, and Quest Pride, are all working together to kick off Pride Month, and we look forward to sharing content with you throughout the entire month of June.
Today, we're going to discuss a little bit about the history of Pride and a global history of the LGBTQ+ community. We'll discuss where we come from and some of the events that have happened to bring us where we are today. I'm thrilled to be here with two amazing allies and friends of mine and fellow leaders of our employee resource groups. I'd like to give them a little moment to introduce themselves and tell you a little bit about themselves. Candace?
Thank you, Joseph. I'm so excited about what we're about to present to do this beautiful work with you and me again. Hey, everybody. My name is Candace Leavitt.
My pronouns are she and her. I'm based here in Houston, Texas. And I'm currently the chair of Quest Colors. I'm part of the Women at Quest ERG, and I'm also an ally to Pride at Quest.
My main focus and main influence on joining each of the ERGs is because I love being of service. I do feel like service is my purpose. So, that's one of the main reasons why I decided to join each of our ERGs and to get to know each and every person that I can within these ERGs, learn their cultures, fight for them, and to fight with them. And I'll hand it over to our next wonderful person, Mini.
Thank you, Candace. I'm Rukmini Divakar. The pronouns I go by are she or her. I'm based out of India.
I'm a part of the HR team and work as a business partner senior advisor at Quest. I've always been an ally and passionately have been contributing and working in various areas like empowering differently abled, girl child education, environmental causes, women empowerment, and many more. So, when I got to know about the ERGs here at Quest, I was so pretty excited to be a part of them, and I just jumped in.
Today, I'm associated with most of the ERGs, and now I'm the co-chair of Quest Colors, communication coordinator of Women at Quest, and an ally to Quest Pride. And I'm so thrilled to be here today and with all the opportunities that I have got. Over to you, Joseph.
Thank you, and my name is Joseph Parks. I'm a part of our Microsoft platform management sales team. I'm based here in Austin, and I am the chair of Quest Pride. I'm very honored to be leading that ERG, and I'm also an ally of Quest Colors, Women at Quest, and the newly formed Quest Mines.
I think what makes Quest very special right now on a huge level is our intersectional work that all of these ERGs are working together because often, companies can silo these ERGs, and they're not talking to each other. They're not listening to each other. And I think in these conversations that we've been having quarterly and in some of our cases daily between the three of us, we're finding so much in common. We find our differences but so much commonality in our stories. So it's such a wonderful opportunity to be with you two here today.
So, we're going to kick off our little history tutorial today on the LGBTQ+ community throughout time and actually globally. Little disclaimer-- we're going to be sharing with you some of our own personal perspectives, knowledge that we've gained through the years, some recent history that we've all done. We wish we had time to talk about every single country and every region in the world because there is a story to be told for every single part of this world.
But we're just going to be giving you an east and west perspective today but just wanted to say that because we wish we had time to cover everybody, and perhaps we will at future sessions. So really, I just want to start off by saying that the LGBTQ+ community, we've always been here. We've always-- whether or not we've been visible is the difference.
There have been times throughout history where Alexander the Great, who is arguably probably the strongest, most powerful soldier in global history, was definitely openly bisexual. He had a relationship with a man. He did eventually get married to a woman, but he had an open relationship with his best friend and fellow soldier.
That was a part of their culture at that time. That was something that was accepted. You could have your relationships, like, with a man and then-- but you also got married. So it's interesting how things have evolved throughout time.
I just want to show you guys a few images that I love. Just to give you a little taste of-- these are all North American-related photos of people in our community, essentially. On top right, we have a couple of men who are agriculture workers. You know, they're working a rural lifestyle.
And these are some private portraits of men together. This was very common at the time for men who had special relationships together. They would have these private portrait sessions-- very intimate, very loving.
These were certainly-- this is pre-social media, everyone. So, these weren't shared with anyone. They were kept private.
I actually, on a personal level, my grandfather was a veteran, mixed race, and definitely did not in any way identify with the LGBTQ+ community. But
