Yas Queen
Written by LGBTQIA+ Task Force Member Markey Battle
Has anyone ever compared companies’ Pride Month makeovers to presents from out-of-touch grandparents?
Stay with me on this.
Grandparents tend to over-compensate, or under-perform for presents. Rather than call their ten-year-old grandson up, they assume that all boys love trucks, so you get every kind of truck you could ever imagine until you grow out of that phase, say, 15 years old? Then they just slip you a twenty for every birthday.
And while the trucks might be nice, you have never alluded to a fascination with trucks, so why is your bedroom full of them now?
In a soberingly similar vein, companies often celebrate Pride Month by hyper-fixating on rainbows and unicorns, YASS-ifying their brands for 30 days. Other companies attempt to stay ‘professional,’ slowly backing out of the rainbow-washing requirement by telling the world how much they donated to certain LGBTQ charities.
Similar to the disappointing birthday presents, Pride Month has morphed from thirty days of empowerment and remembrance to a cheap marketing trick, tied together with a rainbow ribbon.
A Look Back
Pride Month wasn’t always about rainbows and unicorns. Shockingly, it used to be about the powerful people who made pride possible.
Pride Month is set in June because the Stonewall Riots took place that month back in 1969. While this riot wasn’t the first time the LGBTQ+ community fought for their rights, it was one of the most important.
The empowerment and joy these riots caused created a new reality and possibility for LGBTQ+ people to be seen. In June of 1970, New York City activities marched in the first Gay Pride Parade, named by Craig Shoonmaker.
When interviewed about pride, Shoonmaker said, “I authored the word ‘pride’ for gay pride… [my] first thought was ‘Gay Power.’ I didn’t like that, so I proposed gay pride. There’s very little chance for people in the world to have power. People did not have power then; even now, we only have some. But anyone can have pride in themselves, and that would make them happier as people, and produce the movement likely to produce change.”
The change Shoonmaker dreamed of didn’t come until thirty years later when President Bill Clinton officially labeled June ‘Gay and Lesbian Pride Month’. In 2009, President Barack Obama made the month more inclusive, labeling it, ‘Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month’. Today, the name has been shortened to ‘Pride Month.’
Unfortunately, as we move further away from the initial movements that created Pride Month, we also tend to forget why and how this month can make a difference. And, with that history, one has to wonder what would have happened if Shoonmaker had chosen to christen it Power Month instead of Pride.
Rainbow Power
Pride is essential to the LGBTQIA+ community, but the month of June isn’t.
This is often the case with months named after marginalized people groups. Some assume that labeling a month after a group and decorating their company’s social media pages with rainbows, black fists, and posts about equal pay, they’re inclusive.
Just like pride, inclusivity cannot be restrained to one month.
June began as a month of remembering those who came before us, those who spoke out and defended our right to have pride, and those who tragically lost their lives through this fight.
As companies caught on, June quickly became a YASS-ifying competition, as if the more rainbows you add to your LinkedIn equates to your company’s inclusion policies.
Pride isn’t a marketing bandwagon companies should jump on. Throwing a rainbow over your company’s profile doesn’t make you inclusive, especially if you’re going to replace it in 30 days, as well as your promises to become more inclusive.
Pride Month isn’t an opportunity for your company to code-switch in the name of inclusivity.
The month of June provides a platform for change. June, in and of itself is not magical. LGBTQIA+ members don’t receive magical powers when the clock hits midnight on June 1. But the month is as powerful as you make it.
If you choose to rainbow-wash your feed for a month, boasting inclusivity and acceptance all month long, that’s your choice. But when the clock hits midnight on July 1 and the rainbow filters come off, see to it that you’re still as passionate about the community as you were during June.
Putting Power into Pride
The LGBTQIA+ community isn’t empowered by rainbows or unicorns. They don’t need their feeds flooded with ‘fabulous’ words or fake promises. This isn’t inclusivity if it’s not a consistent theme in your company and through your marketing.
The thirty years between the Stonewall Riots and the first pride month saw heartbreak, struggles, and large steps toward inclusion.
Pride festivals and marches broke out all across the country and the world.
Today, several cities host pride festivals throughout the year.
That is because pride, the thing Shoonmaker predicted had the power to change the world, has. But not just for one month out of the year.
No, true pride, true power, has uncapped potential. And when one is proud of who they are and where they’ve come from, they don’t just save their pride for one-twelfth of a year, they share it every single day of their lives.
The LGBTQIA+ community doesn’t want your pity rainbows and they certainly don’t appreciate you trying to make a buck in the name of inclusivity. They want to see real change, real respect, and real power returned to them.
So before you celebrate a company for its ‘inclusive’ approach to pride month, look through its overall approach to pride and the LGBTQIA+ community, as a whole.
Is this company’s pride solely tied to June? Or does it bleed out in everything they do, everything they are, and everything they celebrate?
Just like Shoonmaker envisioned, true pride doesn’t end after thirty days. This kind of pride creates a legacy, one based on power and one that continues to celebrate power.
So go in power and pride, not just this month, but every month.