Calling all LGBTQ families: Hair product brand Pantene wants you to help them raise $100,000 for Family Equality. All you have to do is post a photo of your family on Twitter or Instagram using #BeautifulLGBTQ. For every photo posted, Pantene will donate $1, up to $100,000.
Family Equality provides direct support to LGBTQ families through activities, support groups, and events, and it also does advocacy work in the fight to ensure all LGBTQ families have the same legal rights as non-LGBTQ families.
Related: Pantene’s new holiday ads star transgender people
“For more than 40 years, Family Equality has been at the forefront of the movement for full lived and legal equality for LGBTQ+ families,” said Anna Libertin, the organization’s Director of Communications, “And if there’s one thing we’ve learned from that work, it’s that love—built through those big and small moments we share—makes a family.
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“We are so proud to be partnering with Pantene and these #BeautifuLGBTQ families to share that truth with the world. It is our hope that this powerful campaign will help us garner support in the fight for LGBTQ+ families and youth and encourage folks across the country to take action.”
Pantene and Family Equality launched the #BeautifulLGBTQ campaign in honor of November being National Adoption Month, along with the fact that LGBTQ couples are seven times more likely to adopt children than non-LGBTQ couples.
As part of the campaign, Pantene also created a video series that spotlights real adoptive LGBTQ families and the way their rituals around doing hair bring them closer together.
“Our partners at Yale University helped us discover that hair is the #1 expression of self-identity,” said Bret Senior, Pantene Brand Director, “and we know it’s even more heightened for the LGBTQ+ community. How does that manifest itself when you bring home a new family member with a completely different head of hair, or cultural background, or idea of gender expression? Many LGBTQ+ parents are addressing this tension every day, and along the way, it helps form a beautiful bond with their children.”
“For many members of the LGBTQ+ community, hair is self-expression,” added Libertin, “Short or long, curly or straight, maybe even bright pink or purple—hair provides a channel to explore and express identity. In short, hair is Pride.”
The heartwarming episodes feature parents helping their children discover the hairstyles that make them feel the most like themselves. In one, Raymond and Robbi discuss the joy of adopting their daughter, Ella, and how their nighttime ritual of doing her hair allows them to connect. In another, Joyia & Mariana discuss how their daughter, Eliza’s confidence grows when she sports a hairstyle she loves.
“Watching how these families formed and continue to bond has been incredibly heartwarming,” Senior said.
He added that with the campaign, Pantene hopes to help “reshape” society’s standards of beauty.
“The stories we tell in this campaign reveal how something as simple as hair is integral to identity and can actually bring people closer together. Furthermore, we want our LGBTQ+ family to be seen authentically and beautifully – because we are.”
So if you are part of an LGBTQ family, don’t miss the chance to celebrate who you are while raising money to help families like yours thrive.
@raymondjlee and I are honored to have our family included in this series by @Pantene. Special thanks to @SpenceChapinSvc and our daughter's birth mother for making us a family #Adoption #BeautifulLGBTQ #LoveMakesAFamily https://t.co/qpmSAVcXra
— RK (@3045hobart) November 16, 2020
🏳️🌈 thank you @pantene for supporting Family Equality🙌🏾🙌🏾
Now let’s see these family photos ya’ll #BeautifulLGBTQ and raise some money for @family_equality https://t.co/9t4AGfEoSE— Ariana DeBose (@ArianaDeBose) November 17, 2020
