United States: Google has stopped including references to Black History Month, Women’s History Month, LGBTQ+ holidays, and other cultural observances in its online and mobile calendars for 2025.
The tech giant previously marked events such as Black History Month in February and Pride Month in June, but users will no longer see these listed automatically. The removal was first reported by The Verge last week.
A Google spokesperson, Madison Cushman Veld, said that the holidays were removed due to sustainability concerns. Madison Cushman stated that, “Some years ago, the Calendar team started manually counting 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.”
The company said that as of mid-2024, Google Calendar will only show public holidays and national observances sourced from timeanddate.com. Users can still manually add events they want to track. The decision tracks a series of changes implemented by Google after the start of Donald Trump’s second presidency.
The company recently moved back its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in reaction to executive orders from the White House. Additionally, Google has altered geographic names for U.S. users, renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” and referring to Alaska’s Denali as “Mount McKinley.”
Many users on social media have voiced frustration over the calendar changes, calling it a step backwards in representation. However, Google clarified that the updates will not impact its Google Doodles, which often highlight cultural and historical events. The company also noted that platforms like YouTube Music will continue to feature content celebrating Black History Month and other cultural moments.
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