By Jim D’Innocenzo
Comcast NBCUniversal celebrates the LGBTQ+ community all year long, and Pride Month presents a special opportunity to recognize the remarkable contributions of the community.
Our company is uniquely positioned to leverage our platforms across Comcast NBCUniversal to share stories from and about the LGBTQ+ community. Both Xfinity and NBCUniversal showcased how Pride is Universal through dual marketing campaigns. Xfinity highlighted how we feature LGBTQ+ programming all year long, and NBCUniversal celebrated landmark firsts in the community’s ongoing fight for equal rights, including gay marriage and job protections, as well as NBCUniversal’s history of breaking down barriers in entertainment.
From our representation in front of and behind the camera to our Xfinity platforms, we are committed to giving our audiences experiences that celebrate Pride. For over a decade, we have celebrated and spread the joy of universal Pride through LGBTQ+ content destinations. Across our entertainment platforms, including Xfinity X1, Xfinity Flex, Xfinity Stream and XClass TV, our year-round LGBTQ+ Film & TV Collection features community-recommended content and special collections curated by our in-house LGBTQ+ editor.
Throughout Pennsylvania this month, Comcast employees have joined activities celebrating the LGBTQ+ community, from PRIDE gatherings in Allegheny, Berks, Bucks, Lancaster, Philadelphia and York
counties, to internal events hosted by the company’s OUT Employee Resource Group, which counts nearly 10,000 members worldwide. Our OUT members will tell you there is a reason Comcast NBCUniversal earned a score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s 2022 Corporate Equality Index and was named a ‘Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality’ for the ninth time in 10 years.
In addition, Comcast proudly supported City & State magazine’s “Pride Power 100” list in which two colleagues – Vice President of Project Management and Customer Experience DeShane Hambrick and Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Klayton Fennell – are recognized.
Our Pride Month DE&I Speaker Series brought teammates together virtually to hear from tennis champion Billie Jean King. OUT hosted other events across the country to educate and raise awareness about critical issues across the LGBTQ+ landscape.
Comcast is also committed to making a difference in the communities where its employees and customers live and work, during Pride Month and all year long. As part of the company’s partnership with GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer media advocacy organization, Comcast NBCUniversal donated airtime for a GLAAD PSA titled “Protect Our Families,” spotlighting a family and their transgender teenage son. We also support many local non-profits that serve LGBTQ+ residents, including installing a Lift Zone providing free WiFi at the LGBT Center of Reading.
Comcast NBCUniversal’s longstanding commitment to LGBTQ+ inclusion and equality is public and steadfast. Diversity, inclusion, equity, respect, and civil rights protections are critically important to a company’s innovation, workforce, customers, and the social and economic health of the community.
Jim D’Innocenzo is vice president of Government & Regulatory Affairs at Comcast.