Pride Month Celebration Friday 27th June @ WorkLife Berry!
In celebration of Pride Month this June, we’re proud to share the voice of our amazing WorkLife Berry member, Mel Zamudio. Mel reflects on what Pride means to her and shares her hopes for small regional communities like ours—to support, celebrate, and create safe spaces for every LGBTQI+ adult and child.
We invite everyone to join us and Mel on Friday 27th of June from 4.30pm-6.00pm at WorkLife Berry to celebrate Pride Month. We will be shouting everyone their first drink – just BYO a rainbow platter of nibbles to share… and your kids! Come have a cheers and a chat. Happy Pride!
“This month holds deep personal meaning for me. As a gay woman and part of a modern rainbow family, we’re simply doing what all families strive to do: contribute positively to our community and businesses and leave a legacy of kindness, inclusion, and love for all children.
That’s why I feel a responsibility to lead and speak up during Pride Month, because silence isn’t neutral. Silence gives permission for inequality to continue.
Leading a male-oriented business in a male-dominated industry has made it even clearer: visibility matters. Those in the minority need to know they’re seen, safe, and supported. This is why it’s critical to acknowledge and promote events like Pride Month.
Being part of WorkLife has shown me the power of a truly educated and kind work community. Despite coming from different industries, businesses, and backgrounds, we share space in parallel, united, from my experience, by shared values. Under Kate’s leadership, WorkLife has become a place where like-minded, purpose-driven people thrive. And there’s no better group to champion change and stand as allies than curious, creative, intelligent individuals with a strong social conscience. So, I hope you celebrate and champion PRIDE with me in our community.
Recognising Pride Month isn’t about pushing a political agenda. It’s about cultivating a culture of inclusion, respect, and psychological safety for all employees, including those in the LGBTQ+ community.
Some see Pride as just rainbows and parades, or think it only matters to LGBTQ+ people. Others dismiss it as political or outdated now that some rights exist, or question why straight people don’t have a parade. Many simply don’t see the need, not out of malice, but misunderstanding and lack of self-education.
But Pride began as protest, not a party. It honours the 1969 Stonewall Uprising and the ongoing fight for LGBTQ+ rights. In many places, being queer still means facing violence, discrimination, or even death. Pride month is a time to reflect, connect, and stand with those still struggling to live openly and safely.
Recognition of Pride Month doesn’t mean everyone agrees, but it shows that companies won’t shy away from human rights.
While cities often lead in visible progress, it’s in small communities where inclusion can truly change lives.
When I moved from Sydney to Gerroa to be with my partner Lisa and her kids, it was both beautiful and confronting. I’d grown up in a small town, Camden, and knew both the warmth and the harm that can come from close-knit communities that value sameness over diversity.
As a teenager, I challenged norms simply by being myself- a local athlete, a social and engaged student, community-minded, church-going, well-mannered, and (arguably) funny. I was unapologetically me. I was lucky I had the values a small town could accept. That gave me the chance to shift minds through connection, not confrontation.
Now, in a new town, Gerroa, I don’t have the same built-in credibility. I’m not in school, not part of a sporting network, and don’t have generations of family here. But I’m still here, still funny (don’t ask my wife Lisa), still trying to live a life that gently challenges assumptions, just by existing as me and yet it feels harder. Whilst I care less about offending people, I care more about making a difference.
Real connection changes perceptions. When we are vulnerable and open up, the ‘difference’ barrier fades and we see people, without labels and often with compassion. The vulnerability in all of us is instrumental in change. So how can we create those encounters and opportunities to be us, in our community?
Minorities often carry the burden of representation. We often have to stand up and be our own voice in the absence of brave allies. And our flaws are amplified, our relationships questioned, our identities sexualised.
I have always been identified by my sexuality as the first thought- perhaps it’s the fabulous style (debatable), short hair, the humour (debatable), loving glitter, dance parties and dinner parties or the Barbra Streisand love. I don’t care about that first thought. I own my presence as somewhat of a stereotype. I care deeply about the second. Is it judgment or love? And if its judgement, what can we do better?
We have come along way in the last 42 years since NSW decimalised homosexuality (in my lifetime), it’s been 8 years since I got the rights to marry someone I love, but we still have miles to travel and I know we have some fundamentally phenomenal people in this community who will travel those miles.
That’s why Pride month matters, not just in cities, but in towns like ours, in our schools, our businesses, our sporting teams, and our dinner tables. For Lisa, for me and our little family, and for every family that looks a little different, this matters deeply. Your allyship matters the most.
It matters because every adult and child deserves to feel safe, supported and seen, no matter their family structure. Many communities still don’t celebrate difference and that leaves kids feeling like outsiders. And no more lives should be lost because of unsafe communities and judgement in who someone chooses to love.
Research shows that when people can be their full selves, in business and in community they can do incredible things. We don’t want to be exceptional to be accepted. We just want to belong, without having to explain.
The truth is: we are more alike than we are different. And the time to stop comparing, stop ranking relationships, stop measuring worth by gender or tradition and rejecting outdated nuclear family models in favour of love-based ones – that time is now.
And whether you think it or not, you know people in the LGBTQ+ community, because everyone has a story you may not have been told, and we are far too intelligent to be ignorant that we all play a role in making a difference.
We are better, when we walk together with PRIDE.
Our home and hearts are always open to everyone, lets make our community shout from the rooftops that “you can be you, safely around me” – EVERYONE IS WELCOME.
So join us on Friday 27th of June from 4.30pm-6.00pm at WorkLife Berry to celebrate Pride Month. WorkLife are kindly shouting everyone their first drink – just BYO a rainbow platter of nibbles to share… and your kids! Come have a cheers and have a chat.
Happy Pride.”
