How to support your LGBTQ employees beyond Pride Month

Pride month may be over, but companies’ inclusivity efforts should march forward.

Every year on June 1st, what seems like countless companies change their brand logos to incorporate rainbows, release Pride-themed merchandise and even promote their own inclusive policies. But for employees a month-long performative Pride parade can often feel like more talk than action.

“If the message you're putting out there during pride month is just something that's trendy — like  changing your logo colors — and your message isn’t authentic and your business isn’t contributing to the cause, then you should ask yourself a question,” says Jenn Ortiz, executive vice president of corporate marketing at software company Progress. “‘Do we have the right to do this?’” 

Read More: Why the LGBTQ community has 'some of the worst outcomes in health'

Many don’t. For example, companies including Deloitte, Verizon, Walmart and Google have rolled out Pride-themed marketing campaigns since 2021 —all while donating thousands of dollars to anti-LGBTQ politicians, as reported by Popular Information. 

At Progress, Ortiz says they've taken their own steps to make sure that they're focusing on action more than marketing. Last year, when a discussion of turning the company's logo to rainbow hues came up, members of employee resource groups challenged its legitimacy. 

"They said, 'We wanna put action behind this, right? This isn't something we just want to throw out there," Ortiz explains. In turn, the logo didn't get rainbow-ified in 2021, and in 2022, after strengthening their queer ERG and starting their own initiative to support the LGBTQ community in Sophia, Bulgaria, where Progress is headquartered, they finally felt it was right to use a rainbow logo again. 

If companies want to wave the Pride flag, Ortiz says, they have to honor it first. Actively donating to anti-queer organizations is unacceptable, as is dismissing the opinion of LGBTQ ERGs when choosing Pride marketing, not having progressive benefit offerings for queer employees and being resistant to criticism from LGBTQ employees on whether a company should or shouldn’t market for Pride.

Read More: 'Push for diversity at the executive level': A look at DEI and leadership

“As marketers, we have the tools to amplify a message,” Ortiz says. “And we can amplify it internally and externally. Some things that have specifically worked for us is sharing our goals around what we're trying to do with the LGBTQ community and what progress we've made so far.” 

It may be daunting to be open and transparent about how much a company is actually doing to support LGBTQ rights outside the month of June, and it may feel like a missed opportunity to forgo the rainbow logo, but that’s what makes it so important, according to Ortiz. That way, if companies do change their logo or marketing for Pride, consumers know it’s not performative.

“Even small things can go far,” Ortiz says. “But at the very least, ensure that what you’re saying has meaning behind it.”