Don’t want to be political? Tough luck. When your primary audience is particularly vulnerable to real and potential changes that result from elections and political policies, you don’t have a choice. Refusing to act or take a stand only makes your brand appear feckless and discredits any past claims of allyship.
10 Things Brands Can do to be Supportive of The Queer Community
Here are ten things brands can do to maintain connections and build trust with their LGBTQIA+ customers while changing their marketing strategies to address that community’s needs and values.
1. Be an Accomplice Not an Ally
Brands that market to the queer community often use the word ally as a way to describe their support of LGBTQIA+ rights. If this is part of your marketing strategy, it may be time to change this. What the queer community needs now are accomplices, not allies?
What’s wrong with the word ally? In activist circles, allies are often seen as those who will speak up for the rights of marginalized people, until doing so puts them at risk. For example, a brand might be a trans ally until the backlash against that stance impacts its bottom line. That’s allyship.
Conversely, an accomplice will stand with marginalized communities even when doing so is risky for them. That isn’t always easy to do. In an oppressive political climate, a brand that takes this stand will face harsh criticism. There may be a loss of revenue, business partnerships, or even workers. Just remember that silence or attempts to appease the opposition will be seen as complicity in the effort to erode queer rights.
2. Protect Queer Youth
Anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric often centers around the notion of protecting youth, even though the policies proposed are frequently deadly to these children. When a company affirms its support of queer youth and takes meaningful action to back that up, there’s a ripple effect that benefits all queer folks.
Brands can do that by using their marketing and other communication to:
- Advocate for gender-affirming care
- Support policies that keep schools safe
- Speak out against policies that marginalize or harm queer youth
- Support mental health access for queer youth
- Advocate for the right of parents to support their trans kids
3. Focus Advocacy Locally
Unless your brand operates nationally, it can be difficult to impact change on that scale. No worries! Often, the policies that have the most effect on queer folks are those that are applied locally.
If you want to support LGBTQIA+ consumers, see what you can do locally. Learn what is happening in your local school boards, city or county councils, library districts, and state or provincial legislature. Then take action in a way that benefits people nearby.
4. Use Coalition Building to Address Intersectionality
Intersectionality is where multiple identities combine to create unique combinations of lived experiences, privileges, and oppression. For example, a queer person may also face struggles due to their immigrant status or disability. Brands can build coalition and help to advocate for people by partnering with a variety of grassroots organizations, and by using campaigns to address multiple forms of injustice.
5. Provide a Space For Education And Engagement
Find ways to provide ways for both queer and straight audiences to learn and engage in constructive dialogue. It’s so important that everyone understands the issues and the stakes. Use your platforms to share messages that promote inclusivity and correct misinformation.
6. Avoid Rainbow Capitalism
Pride month has long been a target for marketing teams to reach out to queer consumers – with varying intent and motivation. If your brand only shows up for this community once a year, that’s a problem. Queer folks need genuine support and advocacy year-round, now more than ever.
7. Prioritize Trans And Nonbinary Visibility
No person who identifies as queer is safe in the current socio political climate, but trans and nonbinary folks are being specifically targeted. Prioritize including them in your campaigns to increase visibility. Use your platform to speak out against false and harmful rhetoric. Show your support by funding organizations that support gender diversity.
8. Have a Crisis Management Plan
Backlash is inevitable. Plan for it. People are more polarized than ever, so don’t put yourself in a position to be surprised when that impacts your brand. Instead, make a plan for crisis communication. This should be centered around unwavering support for the community and maintaining your brand’s values. It’s possible to address a backlash without backing away from your commitments to LGBTQIA+ folks.
9. Commit to Meaningful Change
How can your company make a meaningful difference? What can your leadership do, beyond marketing to push for needed change in your industry as it relates to queer issues? What policy changes can you make in your own company, and encourage in others? Where can you use your political influence to advocate the kinds of systemic changes that are needed so badly right now?
10. Highlight Queer Resilience
People are going to need encouragement and uplifting. Yes, it’s important to highlight struggles, and to show the horrible impacts of anti-queer policies and sentiment. But, that becomes so discouraging, when it’s the only thing people see. Offer hope by highlighting queer resilience, community-building, and activism. Work with queer artists, activists, and educators to show these narratives authentically.
Queer Advocacy in Every Industry: All Brands Can Make a Stand
It doesn’t matter what your niche is, there are ways for you to apply the principles above and support the LGBTQIA+ community.
E-Commerce And Retail
Take a look at your products and product categories. Now is the time to make changes to be inclusive of people who are gender diverse. That includes:
- Removing rigid and often unnecessary gender categories
- Offering inclusive sizing
- Selling gender neutral products
- Marketing products as “for all” or gender neutral
Collaborate With Queer Folks
Partner with artists, influencers, models, writers, and others who are queer. They will bring important perspectives to ensure your campaigns and advocacy efforts are authentic. Their representation in your campaigns will make queer folks feel seen.
For example, your brand could work with transgender and intersex influencers on social media campaigns, sell products made by queer designers, or change packaging to be more inclusive. Whatever you do, it should be combined with donations to queer, grassroots organizations.
Hospitality And Travel
If your company is in this industry, you can create campaigns to reach out to the queer community while advocating for human rights and dignity. Here are some action items that might apply:
- Offer travel guides that focus on the needs of LGBTQIA+ travelers
- Use queer people in your campaigns
- Display signs or badges in hotels and restaurants to show that queer folks are welcome
- Use social media platforms and marketing campaigns to make your support for the community clear
Food And Beverage
Marketing teams and executive leadership in the food and beverage industry can take steps to be more inclusive, represent queer folks in campaigns, and make their values clear to all:
- Partner with queer chefs and other creative types to create products or menu items
- Allow employees to include their preferred pronouns on name badges
- Give customers space to do the same when placing orders
- Create packaging and labels that can be personalized or that include queer-positive messages
Technology And Apps
Use your expertise to make UX/UI design safer and more inclusive. For example:
- Give users a full range of options for gender identity, pronouns, and relationship types
- Allow users in hostile regions to use apps and websites incognito
- Use inclusive design principles to improve site experience for all users
- Add an escape button
- Be transparent about data use and collection
- Strike a balance between reaching out to queer people and unintentionally outing them
Banking And Finance
A study by the Williams Institute shows that queer folks have a lower median income. Trans people are particularly impacted by this. These disparities increase where queerness intersects with race or gender. Members of the LGBTQIA+ are more likely to experience homelessness and workplace discrimination. This will only get worse as protections are stripped away.
If your brand is in the financial niche, you can take action to help. Consider offering workshops to increase financial literacy, provide grants to queer startups, and support policies that help increase fiscal security among queer individuals.
Small Business Owners
It’s time to take a look at your business practices and marketing campaigns. Consider how the demographics of your staff impacts the local LGBTQIA+ community. Make adjustments to hiring policies and create a DEI statement if you haven’t done so already. Next, examine your social media and marketing campaigns. Will people see diversity? This is particularly important if you live in a community where queer folks may be underrepresented or marginalized.
Healthcare And Wellness
Work with queer health educators to create educational campaigns on reproductive, mental, and sexual health. Advocate for gender-affirming care for all, not just cis folks. Use marketing efforts to educate and donate profits to free clinics that help LGBTQIA+ people.
Beauty brands can focus on inclusivity. Remind people that beauty products aren’t gendered. Work with gender-diverse influencers to create makeup tutorials.
Media And Entertainment
Platform queer creators that represent all of LGBTQIA+. Produce or support the production of documentaries, plays, films, or podcasts that tell queer stories. Hire queer creatives. Work with local schools, community centers, and grassroots organizations to expose more people to LGBTQIA+ art.
Public Service And Education
Your brand has the potential to help other brands, organizations, and the community-at-large become better educated, more empathetic, advocates or accomplices. Offer your services to host workshops that educate people about issues faced by the queer community. Provide online educational resources on queer history, activism, and current events.
Your Support Matters
The safety, security, and wellbeing of the queer community is in danger. Your support makes a difference. It isn’t just a moral thing to take a stand, it’s in the best interest of your business. Queer folks are a powerful consumer bloc, and they’re watching to see how brands address growing anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric.
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