MarketStar aspires to be more inclusive, diverse, and accepting than ever before. We will be a place of safety and belonging to all people regardless of race, gender, religious preference, or sexual orientation.
This year, many June PRIDE month celebrations and in-person events were canceled due to COVID-19, and it’s more important than ever to celebrate and honor our LGBTQ+ community online.
Our LBGTQ+ employees express their thoughts on the meaning of PRIDE and why it matters to them personally. They openly and graciously share their experiences — the good, the struggles, and the fears they faced and overcame. One thing is clear, belonging to a supportive community that cares is essential for each person to be themselves and thrive.
Denis McCarthy
Dublin, Ireland
EMEA Dropbox Business Training Manager
There’s nowhere in this world scarier than hiding in the closet. That’s the most descriptive way I can describe how it feels when you’re “living in the closet,” and you’re terrified of letting your true self slip.
Growing up knowing you’re different is not easy. After all, when you’re young, all you want to do is fit in with your friends. However, you know you’re not like your friends. You might not have the language to describe how you’re different … but you feel it. I always remember my mum saying, “Children are always listening.” It wouldn’t be until later years that I truly understood what she meant. My mum was right, because words have weight. When I reflect on growing up, the media and people were not always very kind with their words to the gay community. These words quickly made me ashamed of who I am. And the worse thing about it was, I had no control to change myself. Someone might as well tell me to change my eye color — you just can’t!
Imagine nearly 30 years of checking yourself every day after every interaction. Checking your interests, your body language, and so forth, to see if you had exposed yourself. It wasn’t until my late 20’s that I started to feel comfortable with who I am. Once I started telling my family and friends who I was, it was like a pressure valve being released. It was the next chapter of my life opening up.
To anyone who is experiencing how I felt, I can reassure you, it gets better. The feeling of belonging is yearned for by all. After all, a sense of belonging to a community improves your motivation, health, and happiness. That’s why I love being part of the LGBTQ+ community. We always have each other’s’ backs, and there are no strangers — only family. Just like how we are in MarketStar.
Luis Cardenas
Santiago, Chile
HPI, Technical Specialist Security
Pride month for me means the opportunity to show everyone that we are all equals, that our differences make us special and unique, and most of all that love is the fuel that moves our lives and work. With love and kindness, you will be successful. Your clients and peers will see and feel it in everything you do, and they will feel great working with you and MarketStar.
To be part of MarketStar has been a great experience. During all these years (2015-2017 with our client Cisco, 2019-present with our client HP), I have always felt the support of the company. I especially feel supported by my manager, who has always looked for ways to not only boost my skills and career, but ways to support me as an individual. I am given the opportunity to balance time to work on my soul, spirit, and body — which allows for my success at work. MarkertStar’s values of family, career, and community have always be part of my life, and that is reflected in how my customers see and support my work. Many of them have become close friends of mine, and they are happy of how MarketStar accepts and embraces diversity.
For me to have different sexual orientation has never been a stopper. On the contrary — it has been an opportunity to show everyone who I am based on my skills, actions, family, and values. I’m proud to be gay and Latin American. I love and accept myself. When you accept and love who you are, you are giving the opportunity to others to love themselves just the way they are. You can be an example as you become the light — the rainbow full of colors needed to shine and needed to help shine on your friends and colleagues — allowing them to be exactly who they are too.
Thiago SImas
Dublin, Ireland
Sales Team Lead for Workplace by Facebook
I am a career-driven person. I want to make sure I can be my best self and accomplish what I set out to do. I started my professional career in 2006, and, at that time, I was questioning my sexual orientation. I wasn’t sure, and for that reason I was always trying to hide it from everyone.
After a while, I understood that I was gay, and this would never change the professional that I am meant to be. However, I was concerned being gay might affect my chances of getting hired for a position I really wanted or being considered for a promotion.
I quickly decided, my sexual orientation and the workforce wouldn’t affect my passion or my desire to learn, to grow, and to build a solid and successful career. Since then I have been fortunate to work for amazing companies, like MarketStar, that support the LGBTQ+ community and give them space to be who they are with no judgment.
Pride month is important for us to remember how good we are. That we can occupy the best positions in the corporate world, and we can influence others around us to be better people every day. We are all humans. We are all the same — straight, gay, lesbian, transgender, and we all deserve an opportunity to shine bright.
Someday at MarketStar, there might be someone who was just like me — scared to shine and show their true self — and I really hope that I can offer my support, experience, and guidance to that person. I can show them that there are companies, like MarketStar, that allow you to be yourself.