How we celebrated and supported Sydney WorldPride 2023

WorldPride kicked off last week, and over the weekend, we felt incredibly lucky to be able to march alongside our community as part of Google’s colourful parade float with our fellow Googlers, at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade.

This year’s celebration is a huge milestone with Sydney WorldPride 2023, making Australia the first country in Asia Pacific to host the festival! It also marked the 5th anniversary of Australian marriage equality and the 45th anniversary of the parade - and with such important milestones it was fitting that this year’s event was bigger and more spectacular than ever before.

It's been wonderful to see Google build on a long-standing partnership with Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras this year, onboarding as a Major Partner for Sydney WorldPride 2023.

Finding Pride

Safe spaces are crucial - but they aren’t always easy to find, whether you’re in a city or a regional town. And for the LGBTQIA+ community we know this is an ever evolving challenge.

This year we wanted to bring to life our commitment to helping people find safe places that they love - visualised through our colourful Google Mardi Gras parade float. With RuPaul's Drag Race season one star, and one of Australia’s favourite Drag Queens, Coco Jumbo, leading the march from the float, Googlers took to Oxford Street to illustrate a Google Maps 'route', with a whole host of fun.

Our float also symbolised how businesses themselves can add the ‘LGBTQ+ friendly’ feature to their Google Business Profile to help the community surface spaces of belonging and inclusion.

Supporting the local community

One of the things that’s been most important to us through the years has been the partnerships we’ve formed with community organisations and not-for-profits who are doing impactful work.

We’ve been thrilled to continue our support of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade Grants.

The grants support parade entries of groups that make a significant and meaningful contribution to the LGBTQIA+ community, contributing towards their participation in the parade . This funding can be especially helpful to community groups outside of Sydney that might not have otherwise been able to make the trip. This year, we helped 13 organisations representing diverse causes.

Support across Asia Pacific

Across Asia Pacific, Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org provided USD$400,000 in cash grants and capacity building workshops for 13 grassroots LGBTQIA+ organisations such as The Humsafar Trust in India, Marriage for All in Japan and The T Project in Singapore. We’re proud to continue supporting these organisations in their mission to build inclusion and equality across the region.

We’re grateful to be a part of this uniquely special and important Sydney WorldPride 2023. Thank you to the LGBTQIA+ Googlers and our amazing allies that took part in the parade - your dedication and effort made this a special and memorable experience. Thank you also to the countless teams and leaders who have supported the Pride@ Google ERG over the past year.

Thank you Sydney, WorldPride and Sydney Gay Lesbian Mardi Gras!'