All they wanted was for no one to bat an eye.

When my moms mentioned one another at work. When I insisted on making two Mother’s Day gifts in my second grade class.

There were amazing allies, especially the teachers around me — who always let me make two gifts! But the children I interacted with carried the prejudices of their parents. And those parents are the adults that surrounded my moms in their workplaces. They couldn’t come out at work, as we lived in a right-leaning state in the US. They feared their colleagues would see them differently. Or that their employer could retaliate, likely too subtly to name what was happening as outright homophobia. So when visiting my moms at work, they taught me the skill of dancing around questions related to my “other” parent. It was a survival tactic, one they learned through decades of discrimination.

I’d like to say that everything has changed in the decade since the Supreme Court’s Marriage Equality ruling in 2015. But just this June, the governor of our state declared June “Nuclear Family Month” — an intentional erasure of Pride. This development is one of countless state-facilitated choices across the world that makes life more difficult, more dangerous, and at times, more life-threatening for LGBTQ+ people and families like mine globally.

For me, this is what makes workplaces like Xapien’s critical. During my initial interview process a year ago, I remember hearing so casually how Xapien hosted a Pride event. When I came in for the second round in July, I saw the Pride flags still hung up, in their permanent home. Representing how this culture is year-round — not just in the month of June. This is evident to me when I hear my colleagues talk about their same-sex partners like it’s as common as discussing the weather (or more likely, complaining about it, here in London!)

I have this bittersweet wish that my moms could have experienced this atmosphere in every workplace they ever entered. Because when I talk about them in the office — often about how much I miss them from across the pond — none of my colleagues bat an eye.