More than 80 Carlton & United Breweries staff are preparing to march this weekend in the 2020 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
Yak Brewing is a major partner of Mardi Gras and CUB is putting the finishing touches on the giant rainbow Yak puppet that will once again lead its staff in the Parade on Saturday.
Employees representing various functions from CUB sites in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth will be joined by members of the CUB leadership team including Madelyn Ring (VP People), Zoe Solomon (VP Legal) and Rose Scott (VP Sales) in the march down Oxford Street.
This year, Yak Brewing’s choreographed routine will be to Kylie Minogue’s song “Celebration”.
Senior Tech Sales Manager Tammy Heuych (above) will be marching in her first parade with CUB this year.
“Marching in a parade has always been a bucket list item of mine but I have felt like the world’s worst lesbian,” she joked.
“This is because I did live in Sydney for a period of time, but never had the opportunity to partake in Mardi Gras. Then raising a young family, it always came in low on my priority list.”
Within CUB, Heuych is a member of ‘Pride at CUB’, a network that supports the LGBT+ community within CUB and works to educate the wider business on the importance of diversity. She is also an ‘Ally’, an internal certification to that promotes acceptance and creates a support network for colleagues.
In the lead-up to this year’s Parade, Carlton & United Breweries has undertaken a range of activities as it continues to foster an environment where LGBT+ colleagues are respected and valued.
This includes the re-launch of its internal Pride at CUB employee network. Earlier this month a new LGBT+ Intranet Hub was created, which contains resources, information on upcoming events and detail on the CUB Ally program.
The brewer has also been sharing videos with employees to highlight history of Mardi Gras/LGBT+ milestones in Australia and what Pride means to people at CUB.
Staff have undergone LGBT+ awareness sessions and Ally training. The training program is conducted by the brewer’s partner, Pride in Diversity, and is designed to teach people from across the business about how to support and be a voice for LGBT+ colleagues.
The company also hosted a Pride In Diversity quarterly event at its Southbank office. The round table discussion was attended by more than 20 representatives from organisations across Victoria and was opened by Legal VP Zoe Solomon.
The session was an opportunity for representatives from various industries to share what they know and work through challenges facing LGBT+ colleagues in the workplace.
Pride flags have also been raised at multiple CUB sites including the Cascade and Abbotsford breweries during February to coincide with Mardi Gras and Pride month.
“Carlton & United Breweries supports diversity and takes seriously our obligations to ensure all our employees are respected and valued each day,” the company said.
“We support Sydney Mardi Gras because we support these values of inclusiveness in the broader community too.”
To this end, the company also celebrated Yak Brewing’s sponsorship of Mardi Gras with an activation at Fair Day, the start of the festival attended by over 80,000 people.
Throughout the festival there have been Yak Pride themed branding and POS at venues across Sydney to promote diversity and inclusion while celebrating Mardi Gras.
