Beyond Pride Month

What companies got wrong in 2023, and how to stay showing up

by Ren Bowman

Many people know Pride month as the time of year for street parades, the waving of colourful flags, celebrations of the huge diversity of love that exists… and for corporations sticking a rainbow on everything they possibly can in a brief annual effort to capture the hearts and wallets of LGBTQ+ consumers.

"Pink Money" – the spending power of the LGBTQ+ community – was once a fringe and marginalised market. As businesses began to recognise the value of the Pink Pound, it put a little power into the pockets of the Queer consumer and eventually evolved into a thriving economy. Pride Month is a particularly hot time for selling to the LGBTQ+ community but businesses, quite rightly, have found themselves in recent years criticised for making a quick profit off rainbow goodies whilst giving nothing back and being bad allies to their Queer employees.

Back in June of 1970, a year after the Stonewall uprising, the first ever Pride marches took place in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and for those of us who identify under the Queer umbrella, Pride is still just as important today as it was at the start. It's about community, visibility, and awareness, about solidarity between us and those who support our right to exist.

Of the 67.3 million people in the UK, just 2.2% identify somewhere on the broad spectrum of the LGBTQIA+ label. Only an estimated 7% of Americans are Queer. And yet more than 238 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced in the USA in the last 12 months, over double the number in the previous year, and 2022 research has uncovered a pay gap of at least 16% for LGBTQ+ workers in the UK – by comparison, the gender pay gap in the UK is 8%. 

The first Pride was a protest, so the fact we’re facing so much discrimination five decades later speaks volumes. The actions of corporations and employers the world over are more important today than ever and yet it feels like they’re pulling out left, right, and center. Can brands ever get Pride Month right?

It’s not impossible, and with the corporate withdrawal from Pride this year and the massive missteps of companies like Disney, Anheuser-Busch, and Target, any brand sticking to their guns and willingly showing their support is a step in the right direction. The bar isn’t high. I can accept that few corporations will ever be flawless allies, so you have to take into account whether their Pride Month efforts are benefiting the queer community more than they’re benefiting the company, whether they’re inclusive year-round, and what support they offer their employees and other organisations behind the scenes.

Target at least has the defence of retracting parts of their collection based on real threats of violence against their employees, even if it gives off a strong message that their allyship only counts when it's easy to do. Anheuser-Busch (aka Budweiser beer) has a far worse tale to tell. Their 2023 Pride campaign involved sending Pride-branded and personalised cans of Bud Light to trans influencer, Dylan Mulvaney, who has been openly sharing the journey of her gender transition online since 2020, amassing a huge following along the way.

Unfortunately, Dylan’s promotion of Bud Light was met with some serious vitriol from right-wing conservatives. It caused a boycott of Budweiser by enough consumers that Anheuser-Busch had to buy back expired stock that hasn’t sold. But it’s not the failed campaign that makes them the biggest corporate embarrassment of Pride 2023 – it’s their total lack of allyship in the face of backlash. The brand released a statement saying they never wanted to be part of a ‘divisive discussion’, but furthermore, they’ve also suspended the marketing executives responsible for the influencer campaign and said they acted without approval. The company is now clawing to win back its lost conservative consumers following a drop in sales of – wait for it – just 0.03%. Apparently, that was enough to turn their backs on Dylan as she was targeted with hatred across the internet. It's awful, but I'm not surprised to hear it. After all, Anheuser-Busch’s executives have been financially backing politicians who support anti-LGBTQ+ laws for years. 

At the other end of the scale, Levi’s is perhaps an exception. They have proved year after year that their allyship is not just for Pride Month, with a proven history of advocacy as far back as the 80s.  In 1992 they were the first corporation to provide equal domestic partner benefits to same-sex couples, and they were the only company to file an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage in 2008. They supported Queer Britain in establishing the UK’s first LGBTQ+ museum. Each Pride month they donate $100,000 to Outright International, a global LGBTQ+ human rights organisation, and this year’s gender-neutral Pride Month collection delivers something a lot of rainbow-washed Pride collections don’t: genuinely great, non-gimmicky products actually worth flaunting year round. As far as corporate allies go, Levi’s is putting their money where their mouth is.

I love Pride because it’s a time to be thoroughly reminded that I’m not alone. I am part of a community that understands the things I’ve been through simply for existing authentically. But at the end of the day, it’s not just about a single month. The real work is what happens when the flags come down and the festivities are over. 

It’s 2023, and it’s time for workplaces to step up their game and support their LGBTQ+ employees in more than just words. Part of the challenge is the lack of information out there on what real steps can be taken to make your workplace LGBTQ+ friendly – so whether you’re an employer or a colleague, here are just a few things you can do.

And the best part? They’re almost all low effort, and totally free.

Check your language

The wrong language can hurt someone even if you didn't know better. The easy way to tackle this is to be proactive – keep yourself up to date with Stonewall’s glossary of LGBTQ+ terms. And remember, it’s never impolite to ask someone the right way to refer to them, or whether a word is outdated and shouldn’t be used. Just be open to the answer.

Partake in Silent Signalling 

Flag your support for the community in a subtle but visible way – this could mean a sign at your front desk stating your intolerance for discrimination, the use of rainbow lanyards or pins, or even a statement on your website. This has a knock-on effect of not just creating a safe environment for your existing employees and colleagues but also letting potential future hires know they’ll be safe with you.

Create policies that are explicitly inclusive

Policy creates real change. Creating policies within your business that expressly include the LGBTQ+ community, including for benefits, medical support, family support, anti-harrassment, and gender transition goes a long way in supporting global progress. If you're not the policymaker in your place of work, consider suggesting it to someone who is!

Put your pronouns in your communications

Those of us who are gender-nonconforming have to shout about our pronouns in order to be recognised, but including your she/her or he/him pronouns in your emails, social media bios and other communications as default is a tiny step that facilitates huge progress. It shows you’re supportive, but more importantly, it normalises conversations around gender identity. Look at it this way: if everyone had their pronouns in their email signature, those of us who have to have them there would no longer stand out like a sore thumb. It stops the need to share them from being an uncomfortable experience, and it takes just a few clicks to make it happen.

Avoid assumptions and generalisations

People have asked me when I came out of the closet – I was 19. But I was also 25, and 32. I even came out again last week. As a nonbinary trans person, there’s few things that make me cringe more on the daily than people greeting a group that includes me as ‘ladies’ by default. When I mention my spouse, it’s always assumed I must have a husband, and people get so embarrassed when they get corrected. The truth is, as a Queer person you never get to stop coming out, because every time you meet someone new you have to go through the process all over again. It costs nothing to avoid assumptions about people's sexuality and to use gender-neutral terminology like ‘folks’ to avoid disrespecting anyone by mistake!

No conversations about us without us – but try to be a voice when LGBTQ+ folks can’t be 

Conversations around inclusivity and diversity should always be inclusive and diverse, simple as that. That doesn't mean you can't use your voice for good by yourself. Speaking instead people isn’t appropriate, but speaking up for them to help create a safer environment makes a world of difference. When others discriminate, make offensive jokes, or get things wrong, correct and educate them. (Although if you’re unsure if a colleague would be comfortable with you doing that about their personal situation, remember to ask first!)

Lead by example

There’s no need for grandstanding to pull this one off. It’s enough to make a point that harassment will not be tolerated in your workplace, over identity, sexuality or anything else. Check in periodically with your LGBTQ+ employees to see if there’s anything you or your organisation can do better. If your company does charity work, put forward a charity like Outright International or Stonewall for consideration from time to time.

And most importantly, don’t stop supporting the cause when no one can see – be like Levi’s, using your voice for good even when it’s of no benefit to you. That’s true allyship.

Ren Bowman is Senior Marketing and Multimedia Producer at The Digital Voice™, a first-class graduate in Creative Writing and an award-winning podcast producer. They’ve written for a range of industries including tech, entertainment, education, business finance, and lifestyle. Outside of work, they are an activist for social justice, especially Women’s and LGBTQ+ rights.