Celebrating Pride Month: CASL Partners with NQAPIA for a Culture of Belonging

This Pride Month, CASL’s Culture Committee hosted a lunch & learn to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and deepen staff understanding of LGBTQ+ history and activism within the AANHPI community. CASL staff and leadership gathered to share boba, community, and conversation. 

Learning from NQAPIA

CASL was honored to welcome Mai Li O’Keefe, Program Manager at the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA), who presented on the history and ongoing activism of LGBTQ+ rights within AANHPI communities. The session also introduced staff to practical tools for facilitating inclusive environments at work, paired with personal stories shared by CASL colleagues. 

“Sessions like this remind us that allyship isn’t a one-time event — it’s a practice we build into how we show up for each other every day,” said Melody Legge, Director of Human Resources and CASL’s Culture Committee Chair. “Hearing directly from NQAPIA and from our own colleagues made the history feel personal, not abstract.” 

What Staff Learned

The session connected directly to themes CASL’s Culture Committee has been exploring all month: 

• Gender diversity has deep roots across AANHPI cultures. Identities like Māhū (Native Hawaiian and Tahitian), Fa’afafine (Samoan), Bissu (Bugis, Indonesia), and Hijra (South Asia) reflect long-standing, culturally specific understandings of gender that predate Western binary frameworks. 

• AANHPI LGBTQ+ history is still being preserved. Staff were introduced to the Dragon Fruit Project, an oral history initiative documenting queer Asian and Pacific Islander experiences with love and activism from the 1960s through the 1990s. 

• Allyship is an ongoing practice. Small, consistent actions — using inclusive language, respecting names and pronouns, listening without assumption, focusing on impact over intention — build workplace cultures where people feel safe being themselves. 

• Affirming environments support well-being. Feeling seen and respected has a measurable impact on psychological safety, and CASL’s value of Care extends directly to how the organization supports LGBTQ+ colleagues, clients, and community members. 

• Learning doesn’t end with Pride Month. Organizations like NQAPIA, PFLAG, Trikone Chicago, The Trevor Project, and the Human Rights Campaign offer year-round resources, and CASL staff can continue learning through CASL U and the Culture Committee SharePoint. 

CASL’s Commitment

“This Pride Month, CASL is proud to recognize and celebrate the LGBTQ+ community as part of our ongoing commitment to fostering a culture of belonging, respect, and inclusion,” said Jered Pruitt, CASL’s Chief Growth Business Officer. “As an organization rooted in community, we believe every employee, client, family, and community member deserves to feel seen, valued, and supported.” 

Pruitt noted that this year marks an important step forward for CASL as the organization continues building spaces where people can show up authentically and feel safe being themselves, and that while the work is ongoing, CASL remains committed to learning, growing, and engaging thoughtfully. 

Continuing the Conversation

Pride Month is a starting point, not an endpoint. CASL staff interested in learning more can explore the Culture Committee’s full Pride Month learning series, access additional resources via CASL U, or connect with the Culture Committee directly.