We are proud to celebrate you and all members of the LGBTQIA+ community on your path to living authentically.
At CBD Kratom, we are dedicated to building diverse, inclusive, and safe spaces for both our team members and our customers. Over 40% of CBD Kratom team members nationwide identify as LGBTQIA+. We are excited to continue growing with diverse voices working together to overcome obstacles. In a company-wide survey, about 88% of our team members strongly agree that diverse types of people are able to work well together at this company, and approximately 77% of team members strongly agree or agree that they feel included at CBD Kratom.
Since our company’s founding, we have been invested and involved with the LGBTQIA+ community–with our very first event at the annual Downtown St. Louis PrideFest. We are committed to creating open, inviting, inclusive, and educational environments in every local community we serve throughout St. Louis, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, New York, Philadelphia, and beyond. As we celebrate Pride Month at our CBD Kratom locations nationwide alongside the LGBTQIA+ community, we honor and reflect on the strides this community has made and will continue to make moving forward. The LGBTQIA+ community and the cannabis community are intertwined as active allies. One trailblazer and openly gay activist, Dennis Peron, acted as a leader for change in the fight to legalize cannabis long before the AIDS epidemic. Peron co-authored Proposition 215, a bill proposing legalization of medicinal cannabis use throughout California, which passed in 1996. His advocacy for Proposition 215 was in honor of his partner, Jonathon West, who used cannabis to help manage AIDS symptoms.
Through our values and our continued commitment to building inclusive communities, we aim to empower individuals to be their authentic selves. We go above and beyond to make our company as welcoming and safe as possible. From pronouns in email signatures to supporting our team members in feeling comfortable to live loudly and proudly at work, we encourage our team to balance their work and personal lives fully without fear of retaliation.
"As someone who is not heteronormative (e.g., effeminate), this is the first time I have felt a sense of peace and not self-conscious about my queerness."
~CBD Kratom Team Member
Our culture is driven by our values; some of those values include Teamwork, Care, and Responsibility. To us, Teamwork means we believe in inclusion, respect differing opinions, and collaborate towards common goals. We instill belonging by listening to all voices and valuing our differences. Our value of Care means we treat others with kindness and respect. We build relationships with our customers, team members, and communities through intentional experiences. We demonstrate our value of Responsibility by living up to our promises, following through on our commitments, and balancing competing priorities in decision making. As a part of this value in December of 2021, we offered our stores the chance to donate to a local charity of their choice. Eight of our St. Louis stores choose to support Pride St. Louis with a total donation of $800 as part of an overall donation of $1,200 given company-wide to LGBTQIA+ charities.
We continue to support the LGBTQIA+ community by celebrating their voices both internally and beyond in the communities we serve. As we move forward in our proactive approach to promoting diversity and inclusion, we have built a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) Committee to share the ideas and strategies of our team members for future events, activities, and involvement. We believe in the importance of creating a safe, inclusive environment to open a dialogue and foster diverse thinking.
“We need to clear the way for people to be the best version of themselves. I would like to see all kinds of role models and trailblazers highlighted by the media, for the next generations, and celebrate the success of individuals who are brave enough to be themselves. As a society, we need to invest in diversity and inclusivity to find value in our differences.
These perspectives, blended with other perspectives, create a depth of well-rounded experience that is valuable to business. Diversity in the workplace at all levels is critical to being able to empathize with our customers, diverse leaders are needed throughout commerce and businesses today, and in the future…There are many different identities, perspectives, and backgrounds that can make us stronger.”
~Dafna Revah, vice president of CBD Kratom, in Authority Magazine Interview
We are excited to celebrate you and all of the LGBTQIA+ community during Pride Month! Find us at events in each of our markets this June, including Dallas Pride, Pride Care-a-van in St. Louis, Pride Houston, New York Pride Fest, Pride in the Park in Chicago, Aurora Pride Parade in Illinois, St. Louis PrideFest, and Tower Grove Pride in St. Louis. Where will we see you at Pride this year?