Can't Buy Me Love: What are Companies Actually Doing to Advance the Rights of the LGBTQ+ Community?
Every June that rolls around brings the promise of longer days, summertime fun, and a bunch of Pride themed marketing emails filling your inbox.
A month that is supposed to represent the ongoing fight for the rights and representation of the LGBTQ+ community has become conflated with rainbow capitalism and performative activism. Targeted LGBTQ+ marketing increased in the early 2000s in an attempt to target ‘the pink economy,’ the collective purchasing power of the LBGTQ+ community valued at nearly $300 billion in the U.S. alone.
While rainbow products and rebranding for the month of June may be a nice nod to allyship, it begs the question: What are companies actually doing to advance the rights of the LGBTQ+ community?
LGBTQ+ consumers routinely call out disingenuous brands for using staples of LGBTQ+ culture without fully understanding the significance or meaningfully investing in the community itself, something that has led to the emergence of the term “rainbow washing.”
In the process of commodifying LGBTQ+ culture, companies dangerously fail to acknowledge the pervasive discrimination that members of the community still face, something that won’t be fixed with a rainbow shirt or a rainbow brand logo.
LGBTQ+ Discrimination
While LGBTQ+ rights have undoubtedly advanced in recent years, the community continues to face discrimination and social inequality. Research shows that LGBTQ+ individuals feel the effects of poverty at disproportionate rates when compared to their counterparts who don't identify as LGBTQ+ , experiencing higher rates of unemployment, food insecurity, and housing insecurity.
In the workplace, LGBTQ+ workers face significant wage gaps (making approximately 90 cents on the dollar) that continue to widen with other identity factors like race and gender. According to new research on discrimination in the workplace, nearly half of surveyed LGBTQ+ workers reported experiencing unfair treatment because of their identity.
Employees also report engaging in behaviors to avoid maltreatment like hiding their LGBTQ+ identity from their coworkers/supervisors or changing their physical appearance. Promoting equity and inclusion can make employees feel both physically and psychologically safe to be their true-selves, even in the office.
Checking the DEI Box
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) have become umbrella words encompassing the whole spectrum of company ‘best practices.’ Anything from diversity-driven-recruiting to having gender neutral bathrooms can claim the DEI title, which makes it harder to discern whether companies are doing the bare minimum or making real progress in the effort to promote true change.
DEI efforts should aim to match the lived experience of members of the LGBTQ+ community. The reality of low representation, higher job turn over, more barriers to equitable healthcare -and the list goes on - should all be a part of the conversation of advancing equity for the LGBTQ+ community.
Pride branding isn’t enough. Recruitment isn’t enough. One-off-harassment training isn't enough. If we want to truly advance the rights for the LGBTQ+ community, we must be expecting more from those in power.
Exploiting LGBTQ+ culture to lift public perception while simultaneously perpetuating inequality and discrimination is exactly the kind of rainbow-washing that halts true progress.
Meaningfully Advancing Rights
It should go without saying that, to avoid rainbow-washing, companies should be paying attention to LGBTQ+ workers all year round, not just for the month of June.
Incorporating allyship and mainstreaming LGBTQ+ rights should be prioritized in order to make the workplace safe space for LGBTQ+ workers.
Here are a few places where you can start your company’s journey to true equity:
Inclusion audits can reveal where gaps exist in a company’s existing practices. Discrimination easily hides in company policy and can go unchecked without an equity lens. Asking questions like:
How inclusive are company documents/forms?
Are there selections for pronouns?
What naming conventions are used for spouses and children in parental leave policies?
Questions like this can begin the conversation for LGBTQ+ equity.
Bias training (both conscious and unconscious) allows workers to better understand themselves and how their words, actions, policies, and decisions may affect coworkers. Challenging employees to think empathetically may reduce the incidence of mistreatment of LGBTQ+ workers and help uplift the entire workforce.
Participate in equity-advancing reporting mechanisms like the Corporate Equity Index, a benchmarking tool related to nondiscrimination in the workplace. Companies receive a rating based on the degree to which they promote LGBTQ+ equity and can track their progress against other organizations and overtime.
Promote diversity in hiring. Advertising job openings on LGBTQ+ friendly job sites, using gender-neutral language in job descriptions, and highlighting inclusive workplace policies are all ways companies can clearly communicate that they are a safe space for everyone. Delivering on those expectations is a key step to avoiding ‘diversity-hires’ or putting a LGBTQ+ worker in a potentially harmful environment.
Focus on retention. Understanding that discrimination exists even after the hiring process prioritizes the well-being of LGBTQ+ employees. Employee resource groups (ERGs) can offer safe spaces for LGBTQ+ employees as well as allyship and recognition. Checking in with ERGs and having formal processes for employees to air grievances can help workers’ voices be heard.
Encourage employee engagement by partnering with LGBTQ+ rights organizations. Employee giving campaigns and volunteer opportunities are easy places to show commitment to LGBTQ+ rights. Partnering with nonprofit organizations and highlighting community organizations that employees can support advances equity inside and outside of the workplace.
ESG
It’s sometimes easy to forget that advancing rights and social equity is a part of the ‘S’ in ESG. Getting lost in the more technical aspects of environmental and governance reporting can often push social equity agendas to the side for a variety of reasons.
As companies look to progress in their sustainability journey, however, advancing rights needs to be a continual part of the conversation. Inclusion doesn’t exist in a vacuum!
Internal DEI efforts are good starting points and can serve as a model for engagement with the community and consumers. But instead of just repping the Pride flag this June, make sure your company is repping LGBTQ+ rights for real.
The Uplift Agency
Uplift builds strategies, programs, and communication campaigns that advance ESG in workplaces, supply chains and communities.
We know how to navigate the road ahead because we’ve already been down it – 90 percent of our team has led environmental or social programs in corporations or nonprofits. Because ESG is all we do, our services are more comprehensive and integrated than most firms.
