Google Calendar removes Pride Month, Black History Month and other cultural observances

Google Calendar users have noticed that several cultural observances, including Pride Month, Black History Month, and Holocaust Remembrance Day, have been removed from the platform’s default holiday list. The change, which was first reported by The Verge, has triggered criticism from users and reignited debates over tech companies’ shifting stance on diversity initiatives.Google Calendar previously included observances such as February 1 (Black History month), March 1 (Women’s History Month), June 1 (Pride Month) and November 1 (Indigenous Peoples Month). However, for 2025, these events no longer appear in the calendar’s default settings.Instead, Google now only displays public holidays and national observances sourced from timeanddate.com, a long-time data partner. The company had quietly begun this shift in mid-2024 but did not make a public announcement, leading to confusion and frustration among users, according to GB News.Following the backlash, Google spokesperson Madison Cushman Veld defended the decision and was quoted by The Verge saying, "Some years ago, the Calendar team started manually adding a broader set of cultural moments in a wide number of countries around the world. We got feedback that some other events and countries were missing — and maintaining hundreds of moments manually and consistently globally wasn’t scalable or sustainable." Google encourages users to manually add observances to their personal calendars and provide feedback through the built-in Calendar tool.Many Google Calendar users expressed disappointment on social media, accusing the company of downplaying important cultural moments. Some called the change "shameful" and accused Google of "capitulating to fascism."The shift comes amid a broader rollback of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives across the US tech industry. Several companies, including Meta, Intel, and PayPal, have scaled back diversity hiring programs, while Amazon removed references to "inclusion and diversity" from its earnings report.Disney also removed its "Reimagine Tomorrow" DEI program from its latest corporate report but added an initiative focused on hiring US military veterans, according to GB News.As of now, Google has not indicated whether it plans to restore the removed observances. For now, users who wish to track events like Pride Month, Black History month, and Indigenous Peoples Month must manually add them to their calendars.