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LGBTQ+ groups & experts are encouraging companies to keep supporting Pride

LGBTQ+ groups & experts are encouraging companies to keep supporting Pride
A smiling group of Pride attendees Photo: Shutterstock

Leading into Pride month, right-wingers have attacked companies like Anheuser-Busch, Target, and North Face for their LGBTQ+-inclusive marketing campaigns. However, Pride organizers, media experts, and LGBTQ+ groups are encouraging companies to push back on such pressure and also highlighting the many benefits of doing so.

Josh Coleman, president of Central Alabama Pride, told Rolling Stone that compared to past years, more companies seem reluctant to get involved in Pride celebrations, especially celebrations that feature drag queens and all-ages events. Coleman blames this on “Don’t Say Gay” laws, drag bans, and other legislation and rhetoric accusing LGBTQ+ people (and their allies) of targeting kids.

In past years, corporations could quietly target LGBTQ+ consumers without much right-wing blowback, Katherine Sender, a media communications professor at Cornell University, recently told NPR. But that’s changed. Now social media allows hostile Republicans and conservative pundits to quickly highlight LGBTQ+-inclusive campaigns that might have otherwise gone unnoticed by mainstream audiences.

“In the past, when Pride Month would come up, sometimes we saw brands hesitating because they were fearful their allyship would seem shallow and that they weren’t doing enough,” marketing communications professional Lisa Weser told Ad Age. “Now, we’re hearing concerns — even from brands that have activated successfully in the past — that now they might find themselves in the middle of a culture war.”

businesses, corporate Pride support
Shutterstock Protesters in the 2020 Los Angeles Pride Parade

Being an ally in a politically rocky time

Consumers have long used boycotts to show their disapproval of specific company actions, Sender said. But recently, anti-LGBTQ+ forces have begun targeting inclusive companies with violence and death threats to get them to back down from supporting LGBTQ+ causes. This has understandably made companies reluctant to step into the fray.

This right-wing antagonism has the dual effect of also increasing the number of community volunteers who want to help keep Pride events fun and safe, Susan Steinberg, chairperson of the Mahwah Pride Coalition in New Jersey, told Rolling Stone. Her organization has seen a 50% increase in local high school volunteers who want to “fight back” and “celebrate” in opposition to “all the nasty politics and laws.”

Companies that contribute to Pride events signal solidarity during a politically rocky time. Queer consumers pay attention to this allyship, says cultural communications expert Rana Reeves. That allyship not only develops brand loyalty, but also lays the foundation for more significant societal change.

Reeves told Ad Age that, beyond inclusive advertising and merchandise, companies could demonstrate their allyship by supporting LGBTQ+ organizations that focus on issues — like homelessness and mental health — or by lobbying for systemic change on the legislative level.

Bud Light recently followed this suggestion somewhat by donating $200,000 to the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce’s (NGLCC) Communities of Color Initiative (CoCi) to uplift queer business owners of color. Target has partnered for years with the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization GLSEN to demonstrate its commitment to queer youth. Other brands, like Crystal Head Vodka, sell merchandise colored with Pride flag designs and work directly with local LGBTQ+ foundations to ensure that the proceeds benefit queer people.

By giving to smaller local groups, companies can also encourage their employees and other community members to do the same.

“Many donors may still not understand how to support LGBTQ+ causes outside of large, national nonprofit organizations which leaves local, grassroots, and community-based organizations struggling for funding,” Kyson Bunthuwong, development and partnerships director of Philanthropy Together, told LGBTQ Nation.

“I don’t necessarily see the discouragement in giving, but rather, a gap in knowledge and understanding on who to donate to and how to do it effectively,” Bunthuwong added. “We need to change people’s perceptions [to understand] that donating at the local level can also lead to significant change.”

businesses, corporate Pride support
Shutterstock

Protecting LGBTQ+ partners on every community level

“Members of the LGBTQ community are not only customers and prospective customers, but they are also a large representation of the workforce and deserving of working and living without harassment, inequities, and discrimination,” Dr. Nika White, author of Inclusion Uncomplicated: A Transformative Guide to Simplify DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), told LGBTQ Nation.

When companies do incorporate LGBTQ+ creators and content into their marketing and merchandise, brands need to be prepared to stand up to critics, Reeves added, and to acknowledge the political attacks upon specific parts of the LGBTQ+ community. They also need to prepare a defense for public-facing employees.

Brands releasing Pride-related marketing should anticipate hostility and have prepared responses — pre-approved by the highest levels of company executives — for social media, the press, and customer emails, Weser said. Companies should talk to employees to help them understand why the company has taken a pro-LGBTQ+ stance, and also arm them with talking points for responding confidently to any backlash.

Additionally, Reeves said companies must prioritize their collaborators’ and workers’ physical and psychological safety — by talking and listening to both — while not letting “trolls or detractors” derail companies’ campaigns.

LGBTQ-owned businesses

Businesses can set good examples for others

The outdoor apparel company North Face provided a model of how other companies can protect LGBTQ+ partners when it supported drag queen Pattie Gonia and issued a statement of LGBTQ+ solidarity after people complained about the drag performer’s video announcing the company’s “Summer of Pride” event.

“The North Face has always believed the outdoors should be a welcoming, equitable, and safe place for all,” the company said in a statement. “We are honored and grateful to support partners like Pattie Gonia who help make this vision a reality. Creating community and belonging in the outdoors is a core part of our values and is needed now more than ever. We stand with those who support our vision for a more inclusive outdoor industry.”

Weser praised the company’s response, saying, “For a brand like The North Face, their values have been on their sleeve for a long time— that’s a brave and bold move that other brands can follow only if they’re able to stand ground in the same way and have put in the same amount of equity in the bank with those communities over the years.”

Comparatively, Anheuser-Busch, Bud Light’s parent company, was criticized for not defending transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney when right-wingers attacked her for her collaboration with the beer brand.

To combat the criticism, Jay Brown — senior vice president of programs, research, and training for the Human Rights Campaign — suggested that Anheuser-Busch release a statement supporting Mulvaney and transgender people, offer inclusion training to company executives, and listen to its LGBTQ+ employees.

Black demonstrators march in a 2019 Pride parade, businesses, corporate Pride support
Shutterstock Black demonstrators march in a 2019 Pride parade

Don’t sweat the noise: The future is queer

“Audre Lorde said it best: ‘It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences,'” Dr. White reminded LGBTQ Nation.

“When companies renege on their support of the LGBTQ+ community, their commitment to inclusion and equality comes into question,” she said. “Risking that level of credibility with such a large percentage of members and/or supporters of the LGBTQ+ community can be costly to a company’s reputation, ultimately impacting its bottom line.”

Despite the volume of right-wing threats and badmouthing from conservative pundits and prominent Republican politicians — like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), Rep. Lauren Boebert (CO), and presidential hopeful Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — they may actually represent only a minority of Americans.

Recent polling shows that 70% of non-LGBTQ+ Americans believe that companies should publicly support the queer community through inclusive policies, advertising, and sponsorships.

Supporting the LGBTQ+ community can also be a worthwhile investment in the future. A recent Ad Age-Harris Poll found that 34% of consumers between the ages of 18 and 34 said they’d be more likely to purchase from companies that support LGBTQ+ rights during Pride Month. In other words, such investments will last well beyond June — especially since nearly 1 in 4 teenagers identify as non-heterosexual.

Companies can also build upon this coalition of conscientious consumers by aligning with other progressive causes that LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+-consumers support, Bunthuwong said.

“We are slowly seeing that human rights issues are interconnected, and the fight for LGBTQ+ rights can’t be isolated from other social issues,” ze said. “Solidarity across different marginalized groups has always led to greater change, and this will be a defining value in how donors of all kinds can make substantial impact now and into the distant future.”

Aligning with the LGBTQ+ community now, when the stakes are much higher — especially for the trans community — shows a willingness to stand up to oppression and bullying. Such support is essential to changing public opinion but it also propels younger generations towards creating cultural change nationwide in the years to come, many months after the parades have all ended.

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