June 29, 2021 Early in her career, Tori Armendariz worked a job based in Tennessee. While she did have coworkers that were respectful and supportive, there were also people who were much more narrow-minded. “I was talking to a supportive co-worker about my girlfriend, and the manager of that location took me aside and said that I couldn’t speak about things like that,” she said. It was made clear that the manager wasn’t accepting of Armendariz’s girlfriend and the LGBTQ+ community. Now a technical people operations generalist at Trainual, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based e-learning company, she’s in a much better work environment. But that experience in Tennessee was a turning point for Armendariz. She wanted to make sure no one else would have to feel like an outcast at work just because of who they are.