Openness is not a campaign. It is an attitude.

Every year in June, Pride Month highlights the visibility of the LGBTQIA+ community. For many companies, it is an opportunity to demonstrate a commitment to diversity and acceptance.

This is important.

Even more important, however, is the question of how we, as a society and as a workplace, interact with each other during the other eleven months of the year.

Because the reality shows: True equality has not yet been achieved.

According to a recent survey by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, 38 percent of the queer people surveyed in Germany felt discriminated against in the past year. 34 percent report frequently hiding their sexual orientation or gender identity at work.

These figures show that visibility still requires courage. And they show that openness is not a given.

Diversity is not a fringe issue

When diversity is discussed, it is often reduced to socio-political debates. Yet diversity affects every workplace, every team, and every company.

People spend a large part of their lives at work. No one should feel the need to hide a part of their identity to be accepted.

A modern corporate culture is not created by everyone being the same. It is created by accepting differences.

Diversity does not mean that everyone has the same opinion. Diversity means that people with different life paths, experiences, and perspectives can work together respectfully.

This is exactly where new ideas, innovations, and better decisions come from.

Openness does not end with technology

As an IT company, we deal daily with open standards, interoperability, and digital sovereignty.

We advocate for people and organizations to act autonomously, without unnecessary dependencies on individual providers or closed systems.

This conviction does not end for us with technology.

Those who demand openness in technology should also live openness in dealing with people.

Respect, acceptance, and equal opportunity are not societal side issues. They are the foundation of every modern corporate culture.

Attitude is shown in action

That is why we have been voluntarily supporting the hosting of the love* wedding fair website since its inception.

The fair stands for an inclusive wedding culture and makes visible what should be self-evident: Love needs no labels. It creates a space for people of different life realities and sets a sign for openness, respect, and participation.

We also support as a sponsor the initiative Big Booty Stay Funny and the non-profit cultural association Booteam e.V. from Saarlouis behind it.

The movement founded by Stefanie Weiand advocates for body positivity, self-love, tolerance, and a positive approach to oneself. Its message is deliberately simple and at the same time powerful: People do not have to be perfect to be valuable. They are allowed to be as they are.

Here, too, it is ultimately about the same principle: Acceptance instead of exclusion. Self-determination instead of pressure to conform. Respect instead of judgment.

For us, such commitments are not marketing measures and not actions for a single month of the year. They are an expression of an attitude that we also want to live in our professional everyday life.

Diversity makes companies stronger

The challenges of our time are becoming more complex. Digitalization, skills shortages, artificial intelligence, and societal change require different perspectives and new approaches.

Companies that understand diversity as a strength create the best conditions for this.

Not because diversity automatically guarantees better results.

But because people can best realize their potential when they do not have to pretend.

Those who have to spend their energy adapting or hiding a part of their identity cannot invest this energy in creativity, collaboration, or innovation.

Our understanding of diversity

For us, diversity means above all one thing: Respect.

Respect for different life paths.

Respect for different identities.

Respect for different perspectives.

Everyone should have the freedom to shape their life in a way that feels right to them. And everyone should have the opportunity to work and live in an environment where this freedom is respected.

Pride Month reminds us that this claim is not yet a reality everywhere.

That is why we do not see diversity as a topic for a single month.

But as part of an open society, a modern working world, and a corporate culture that does not judge people by who they are, but by how they interact with each other.

Openness is not a campaign.

It is an attitude.