I don’t mind if brands profit from Pride – as long as the LGBT+ community does first

Organising bodies behind marches tend to require sponsors to prove that they are genuine champions of diversity – the same should be true of other brands who jump on the bandwagon

The offending rainbow Listerine bottle, released ahead of Pride month (Johnson & Johnson)

Whether it’s International Women’s Day, Mental Health Awareness Week or National Milkshake A Fascist Month, in 2019 big brands are falling over themselves to appear as woke as possible, and the global LGBT+ Pride movement provides ample opportunities for them to do so.

June marks the unofficial beginning of Pride season, which means that it’s only a matter of time before it becomes physically impossible to walk down your local high street without being bombarded with rainbow flags, glitter and generic hashtag slogans in every shop window.

Already this year M&S, Ralph Lauren, Boohoo, Ikea, Dr. Martens, Primark, Adidas, the Co-op, Under Armour, Converse, Skittles, Virgin Atlantic, Reebok, Levi’s, Apple, Banana Republic, Milk Makeup, Abercrombie & Fitch, Starbucks, Asos and Disney have done it. Listerine and even Donald Trump (no really) are flogging pride products to varying degrees of apathy, bemusement and, in Trump’s case, utter indignation from many members of the LGBT+ community.

It is easy to resent these often quite transparent and half-baked attempts to cash in on the pink pound, particularly when the organisation’s behind them do little to truly engage with the real meaning of Pride. Putting a bit of avocado in a BLT or slapping some rainbow flags on a polo shirt doesn’t make you an ally, not least because the vast majority of queer people I know would never participate in something as heterosexual as eating meat or wearing Ralph Lauren.

We should never forget that the first “Pride” 50 years ago was a riot protesting police raids on the Stonewall Inn, but nowadays it can feel as if Pride the protest is being subsumed by #pride the corporate scheme, to the detriment of the LGBT+ community it claims to serve. Despite this, I still think that in the right circumstances the queer community can benefit from corporate involvement with LGBT+ organisations and Pride events.

For a start, corporate funding can make a huge difference to the accessibility and reach of many LGBT+ initiatives, including Pride events themselves.

Like many of the largest Pride marches internationally, Pride in London is sponsored by corporate giants like Tesco, Barclays and Amazon. It’s easy to see why people can be reluctant to support this, and perhaps we should question why Pride events aren’t adequately subsidised by government funding. But whether we like it or not, the reality is that corporate sponsorship is often vital in ensuring that such events are kept free at the point of access for the millions of people who attend them, while also making them visible to those who can’t.

In many cases, the organising bodies behind Pride marches require their sponsors not just to pledge their financial support but also to prove that they are genuine champions of diversity, and the same should also be true of the many other brands who jump on the Pride bandwagon regardless of whether or not any sort of governing body is actually holding them accountable. Donating a genuinely meaningful proportion of the profits from your inclusive coffee cups, gay sarnies or rainbow-striped boxers to LGBT+ charities is just the start.

Being a true ally means making sure that LGBT+ employees and customers feel truly cared for in every way possible. It means having gender neutral bathrooms and changing rooms in your stores and offices. It means pledging to do something about the epidemic of LGBT+ workplace harassment by making sure safeguarding policies and complaints procedures are up to scratch.

It means employing LGBT+ creatives to design and produce your products and LGBT+ models and ambassadors to promote them. It means making sure that everyone is using the correct pronouns in the office. It means boycotting countries and regimes where LGBT+ people are persecuted, and being vocal when governments could do better. It means supporting trans employees through their transition, and HIV+ employees through their treatment. And it means doing all of this all year round, not just in the months of June and July.

Only if you’re doing all of that, and everything else you can do to support the LGBT+ community, do you have the right to associate yourself with our movement.