How Your Brand Should Celebrate Pride
Pride month is upon us! June is a wonderful time for people around the world to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and have a lot of fun in the process.
It isn’t just individuals getting in on the fun, nearly every company celebrates Pride these days…but some companies do better than others.
Most brands simply change their profile picture to a rainbow version and write a single tweet. Not only is that lackluster, people notice when your support isn’t authentic, so it’s actually working against the message you’d like to send.
Celebrating Pride is an Incredible Opportunity
In addition to being the right thing to do, having a Pride initiative for your brand is an excellent way to boost sales and contribute to a good cause at the same time.
Queer people and allies want to support brands that they think are making a difference in their community. Not only that, they’ll remember your products or services long after June and know that you’re good people.
But it isn’t enough to hang a rainbow flag in the window (although that’s still an excellent idea), if you really want to have successful Pride month, there’s a few easy tips!
Run a Meaningful Promotion
Companies around the country will run sales that benefit LGBTQ+ charities and organizations, but there are some easy pitfalls that those companies fall into.
The biggest pitfall being who they give the money to. Major corporations will usually work with a national organization like GLAAD or the Human Rights Campaign, which is great, but not exactly the most personal way to contribute.
Those organizations are some of the best funded nonprofits in the country and giving them “1% of the profits this month” isn’t going to ring very meaningful to people in the community you live in.
Instead, advertise that a certain percentage of profits from your promotion will go to a local LGBTQ+ organization. Organizations in your local community can use your money more than GLAAD and provide it directly to the Queer people in your neighborhood. Even national brands have done this successfully in the past.
Converse ran a promotion in 2021 that supported members of the LGBTQ+ community all around the northeast. In addition to pledging funds to the national It Gets Better campaign, a large portion of their profits went to dozens of grants to LGBT centers in Boston and New York.
Ralph Lauren has worked with LGBTQ+ people and organizations for over 4 decades. Every year they release a Pride clothing line from Queer designers and use those funds to work with local charities around the world, promotion with Queer media outlets, and more.
Lendlease, a construction and investment corporation, has been a fierce ally for years. Every year they receive a 100% on the Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality index from the Human Rights Campaign, and work with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce that helps direct funds to small businesses run by Queer people around the world.
So, rather than donate 10 cents of every dollar to the Trevor Project, find a local organization that helps the LGBTQ+ people in your area. They’ll remember you for it.
Don’t Strictly Focus on Cisgender Men
Most companies place and outsized focus on gay men, but there are several more letters in the acronym for a reason.
That’s not to say that cis men don’t need or deserve help at all, but your brand will have an outsized impact on other members of the community either financially or by building awareness. When was the last time you saw a promotion targeted at Lesbian and Bisexual people?
The biggest group in the community in need of help right now is absolutely transgender folks. Trans people are under attack from legislation that keeps them from lifesaving and gender-affirming healthcare, as well as a rising transphobic discourse in certain circles of the culture at large.
These folks really need help these days and your organization will make a huge impact when outwardly supporting them.
Use the correct language
Queer people are constantly changing and updating the terms that they identify with.
This isn’t a critique of the community, but rather a reflection on the evolving landscape of the language we use. A lot of Queer communities were overlooked for their entire history and are making up the vocabulary as they go.
That’s why “Queer” evolved from a slur to be reclaimed by the community to address a wide range of people with completely different identities but connected by the simple fact that they aren’t heterosexual and/or cisgender.
Since the terms change so regularly, however, that can be confusing for a lot of people, which is completely understandable. If you aren’t sure where to start, there’s tons of helpful guides online (including this one from GLAAD), but you can always just ask a person in the community if you have a prior relationship with them.
It’s not the end of the world if your brand makes a language faux pas either. If you mess up or use an offensive term or phrasing, simply delete the post, rewrite it, and apologize for the mistake. It’s not as big a deal as it seems! With the right intentions, people will recognize you as a real ally, not just a brand that is capitalizing on the month. The result: support way after June ends.
Most Of All: Promote Tolerance Within Your Organization
The biggest thing your brand can do for Queer people is to ensure they feel safe around you. Don’t forget to have fun this Pride month and follow these tips to make sure your brand is doing the best it can!