Celebrating Leaders of Color in the LGBTQ+ Movement by Looking Past Stereotypes

Rainbow washed logos. Corporate donations. Predictably, 2021 saw a wave of brands step up for Pride Month.

But when Pride Month ended, the logos went back to brand colors and activations concluded. It’s difficult to not feel like queer allyship has become a seasonal initiative instead of a year-round commitment. For BIPOC marketers, this can feel all too familiar.

As the daughter of immigrants, I’ve naturally felt empathy for others who are often overlooked by the dominant culture and whose survival is a lifelong struggle to be seen and taken seriously. Cross-cultural connections come naturally to us, putting us in a unique position to step up as allies.

While every story and experience is different, those of us who have carried the label of “minority,” “underrepresented” or “diverse” are well-positioned to create community and share the experiences that bring us together. Those lessons carry over to the brands we lead and audiences we are tasked with engaging. Here’s how we can tap into that empathy to uplift the stories of BIPOC queer identities year-round.

From Secret Code to Stereotype: The Evolution of LGBTQ+ Representation in Advertising

Know the origins of Pride

In order to pitch an annual strategy that honors Black and brown leaders in the LGBTQ+ movement, we must first learn who the legends of the past are, the issues they fought for and identify the organizations that have not stopped fighting for equity.

Inspired by the 1960s civil rights movement, activists in the homophile movement learned the importance of language, symbolism, organizing and nonviolent protest. Drag culture was born as another form of resistance and a way of celebrating individuality, identity and beauty. It was in this era that activist and community workers Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera became inseparable as fixtures in the trans community.

[Let’s] stretch those CSR dollars into a corporate culture that realizes allyship is a verb, not a noun.

One can’t celebrate drag queens in marketing efforts without knowing about ball culture and legends like Crystal LaBeija, a Black trans woman who founded the House of LaBeija in 1977. She became a mother figure for homeless LGBTQ+ youth. We also have lesser-known heroes like transgender immigrant activist Lorena Borjas, who helped trans women in Queens fight human trafficking, health issues and possible deportation.

These leaders are spotlighted in this article as a way to bring their work forward as we seek to add more representation for Black and brown identities in our communication efforts year-round and ask our corporations for financial support in LGBTQ+ issues.

Build a team inclusive of intersectional identities

As we develop a pitch to encourage our organizations to build annual support, it’s imperative to build a strategy team inclusive of intersectional LGBTQ+ identities and allies. The ideas developed by a diverse team will benefit from a variety of lived experiences and allow you to uncover blind spots in the process. An inclusive team will be able to pressure test the strategy and tactics from the onset while building resources to make the pitch stronger as it evolves.

For example, an inclusive and diverse strategy team carries personal connections and relationships that add depth to a marketing plan, such as a team member’s connection to local nonprofit LGBTQ+ organizations or someone’s lived experience as a BIPOC member of the queer community. There are many ways to build an inclusive team, starting with your organization’s employee resource groups, leaning in to work with BIPOC marketing organizations like We Are the Hue and partnering with organizations like GLAAD.

Execute with inclusive principles

Once we ground ourselves in the origins of the LGBTQ+ movement from a BIPOC perspective and create a strategy team, it is important to execute with integrity by keeping these three principles in mind:

• Make it clear from the beginning that the goal is to build inclusivity in every aspect of the process to avoid tropes centered on the white male LGBTQ+ experience.
• Seek guidance from members of the Black and brown queer communities and honor their opinions from the creative development phase to the points of execution.
• Throughout the process, act with the mindset that we are constantly learning and improving how to be better allies to represent historically excluded communities in a relevant and respectful way.

Let’s take this as a call to action for marketers, advertisers and brands to flex beyond seasonal campaigns and help stretch those CSR dollars into a corporate culture that realizes allyship is a verb, not a noun. Because after all, plans for actions are what we do best.

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