Happy Pride month! 🏳️‍🌈


Get ready to see lots of rainbow flags, including the newer Progress Pride Flag (as used by American Airlines) that includes black and brown stripes representing people of color and those lost to AIDS, and and white, pink, and light blue stripes representing the colors of the Transgender Flag.

You’ll also see Pride-themed merchandise everywhere this month, from Adidas’ new Love Unites collection, Apple’s new Pride watchbands, the Rainbow Disney collection of everything from masks to stuffed animals, Harry’s Razor’s limited edition rainbow razor, Lego’s Everyone is Awesome set, and much much more.

All of the brands mentioned above dedicate resources to LGBTQ nonprofit organizations as part of their promotions. That’s not the case with every brand that jumps on the Pride bandwagon, though. Brands that stamp a Pride flag on a product but take no positive action (or worse, use it to cover up harmful stances) will rightly be called out for “rainbow-washing.”

My colleague Tina Cannon, president and CEO of the Austin LGBT Chamber of Commerce, gets dozens of calls and emails in the week leading up to Pride month from non-member companies wanting to plan something–anything–for Pride at the last minute.

Her response: “So you want to plan for something happening in literally a few days because you failed to plan in advance and now are freaking out? Maybe start by being more intentional for next year about your engagement with the LGBT community all year round.”