Google Calendar Removes Cultural Observances
Google Calendar has made the decision to exclude references to significant cultural observances, such as Black History Month, Women’s History Month, and LGBTQ+ holidays. Previously, Google marked the beginning of Black History Month in February and Pride Month in June, but these events are absent from the 2025 calendar.
Removal of Holidays
The exclusion of these holidays was initially reported by the Verge. According to a statement given to the Guardian by Google spokesperson Madison Cushman Veld, the decision stemmed from the realization that maintaining a comprehensive list of cultural moments was not sustainable for their model.
Statement From Google
“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,” Veld’s statement explained. Consequently, by mid-2024, Google returned to only showing public holidays and national observances sourced from timeanddate.com globally, while allowing users to add other important moments manually.
Changes Under the New Administration
Google’s decision to discontinue recognizing Black, LGBTQ+, and women’s history holidays is part of a broader rollback of diversity efforts following the start of Donald Trump’s second presidency. The tech giant recently announced it would scale back its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in response to the president’s directive to limit DEI activities in federal agencies.
Recent Changes and Controversies
In late January, Google revealed that U.S. users would see the Gulf of Mexico renamed as the “Gulf of America” and that the name “Mount McKinley” would replace Denali for the mountain in Alaska. These changes were enacted following executive orders from Trump signed on his first day in office.
Public Reaction
Many users on social media expressed disappointment and frustration with Google’s recent decisions. Following the calendar changes, those wishing to track events like Pride Month, Black History Month, and Indigenous Peoples’ Month must manually add them to their calendars.
Future Google Doodles
Despite these changes, Google clarified via email to the Guardian that they will not impact future Google Doodles, which often celebrate these cultural moments with digital artwork on the homepage. The company affirmed its continued commitment to celebrating and promoting cultural moments in its products, such as YouTube Music still offering a Black History Month playlist.
