Equinox Extends LGBTQA from A to Z With a New Alphabet for Pride Month

It's Pride Month! And every year, around this time, a certain kind of pundit hops on a soapbox to complain about how the term "LGBTQA" just keeps getting longer, and isn't that just ludicrous? Actually, it isn't. In fact, it's not nearly long enough. And a campaign from Wieden + Kennedy New York highlights why. For Equinox and the LGBTQA Community Center, the agency has produced "The LGBTQAlphabet," whose chill and choreographed film goes down the list of not six letters but 26. The goal is to show that a handful of labels isn't remotely sufficient to encompass the complex identities of the world's 7 billion people. [kickout id="1"] "The Center is proud to partner with Equinox once again this year for Pride, in celebration of the wonderfully intersectional and diverse community we serve," says Glennda Testone, executive director of the LGBTQA Community Center. "Our community's deepest expressions of identity are perfectly positioned to shine through in this campaign, and we applaud Equinox for being inclusive of the many unique voices that make our community—and our country—so vibrant." The film features real voices that explain each letter's definition, and what it means for them. Included among them are "Womxn," "Heteroflexible," "Intersex" and "You." What we come to understand is that sex, gender and love are spectrums as wide as we are at any given moment in time. And LGBTQA doesn't just represent a few; it's a celebration of all of us—our individual right to be complex sexual beings, and even to evolve. The result is instructive, and one of the rare pieces that leaves us feeling the many possibilities brimming in ourselves. It's for this reason that supporting Pride is so important. The work was choreographed by Andrew Winghart and directed by Jordan Bahat, who says, "It’s critically important to our culture that we boldly acknowledge and celebrate the ways in which each of us is unique. One of the ways we can do that is through representation in creative projects like this film.” He also gives a shout-out to the diversity of people he spoke to. "I’m especially grateful to the Center—and to the people who spoke with me in our audio interviews. Those conversations were disarmingly honest and beautiful and, proudly, that spirit is on full display in this film." The film went live on Equinox's social channels on Monday. It will be supported by short versions that spell out words like "Love" and "Pride," designed to be shared. “We’ve spent the past few years pushing deeper into the notion that ‘What you commit to is who you are,’ and this film is a through-line for us, empowering viewers to find their own ways of expressing the color, variation and realness inherent in one’s identity,” adds Elizabeth Nolan, executive creative director at Equinox. “Equinox has always empowered the community to be proud and unapologetic about who they are, but this year, we wanted to make an even more meaningful contribution to a cultural dialogue that is being written before our eyes. With the help of the Center, we were able to bring this vision to life in a way that feels simultaneously brave, authentic and celebratory.” To encourage self-expression and extend the campaign's scope through Pride Month, Equinox is holding #POWEREDBYPRIDE themed parties in multiple cities, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Toronto. The fitness brand will also host Pride editions of its Hip-Hop Yoga Class for existing Equinox members. As a tribute to the collaboration, Equinox also made a donation to the LGBTQA Community Center. Below, the letters and accompanying words that appear in the film. Which resonates with you? Don't worry—answers can be multiple-choice. A - Ally B - Bisexual C - Coming out D - Drag E - Exhibitionist F - Femme G - Gay H - Heteroflexibile I - Intersex J - Justified K - Kink L - Lesbian M - Masc N - Non-binary O - Out P - Pansexual Q - Queer R - Real S - S & M T - Trans U - Undecided V - Vogue W - Womxn X - Xtravagant Y - You Z - Ze | Zir CREDITS Client: Equinox Project: EQX Pride - LGBTQAlphabet Format: Digital, Social, In Club (windows/displays), Video Carla Dunham, VP Brand Marketing Elizabeth Nolan, Executive Creative Director Shanna Carpenter, Director, Social Media Gisela Delgado, Senior Manager, Studio Services Agency: Wieden + Kennedy New York Executive Creative Director: Karl Lieberman Creative Directors: John Parker, Sean McLaughlin Copywriter: Ian Hart Art Director: Jessica Shriftman Designer: Alison Joseph Head of Integrated Production: Nick Setounski Director of Art Production / Producer: Deb Rosen Account Team: Casey Jennings, Samantha Wagner, Jasmine Cogdell, Lee Ford Project Manager: Kristin Daly Business Affairs: Patrick O’Donoghue , Lindsey Timko, Carla Curry Traffic Supervisor: Sonia Bisono Associate Media Director: Neil Sawhney Content Strategist: Matt Simpson Brand Strategy Director: Brandon Thornton Strategic Planner: Aya Watanabe Production Production Company: Caviar Director: Jordan Bahat Choreographer: Andrew Winghart Cinematographer: Michael Gioulakis Production Designer: Daniel Smith Casting: David Kang Casting Styling: Julie Brooke Williams Make Up: Georgina Hamed Hair: Rene Cortez Executive Producer: Michael Sagol Executive Producer: Jasper Thomlinson Executive Producer: Kim Dellara Executive Producer: Adrianne McCurrach Producer: Cary Gillespie Head of Production: Casey Wooden Talent Performers: Allaune Blegbo Derrick Butler Tasha Crudup Will Johnston Lilly Leithner Julio Marcelino Daphne Von Rey Editorial Editorial Company: Cut + Run Editor: Stacy Peterson Senior Producer: Eytan Gutman Editorial Assistant: Nicole Berg VFX VFX Company: Jogger Studios New York VFX Flame Artist/Visual Effects: Joseph Grosso Senior Producer: Yoko Lytle Telecine Telecine Company: The Mill Colorist: Fergus McCall Senior Producer: Natalie Westerfield GFX GFX Company: Skylab 5 GFX Artist: Mark Thompson Mix Mix Company: Sonic Union Mixer: Paul Weiss Producer: Justine Cortale Music Song: Original Composition Artist: White Sea Photography Photographer: Mackenzie Duncan Photographer’s Agent: Arthouse, Natalie Frenkel Retoucher: Nick Leadlay

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Equinox Extends LGBTQA from A to Z With a New Alphabet for Pride Month

Thinking in spectrums, not clusters

Angela Natividad

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Angela Natividad