Good morning! Happy June to all brands launching a Pride campaign!! A reminder: you are about to capitalize on our identities/marginalization for corporate gain !!! It is therefore worth giving a second thought to your limited edition rainbow product !! Here, let me help!!!

The following are ineffective/vacuous ways to engage with a queer community:

- limited-edition rainbow products
- vague "love is love" messaging
- disembodied hand-holding
- a t-shirt (which we are well aware is the lowest cost endeavor with the fastest turnaround)

- any for-profit venture without a queer nonprofit partner
- having a queer nonprofit partner but donating less than 15% of the proceeds
- having a queer nonprofit partner but not disclosing the amount you plan to donate, which we we only read as a thinly veiled “not that much”

- recycling last year’s pride campaign
- straight/cis people developing your campaigns
- underpaying queer/trans people to develop your campaigns
- underpaying queer/trans artists to create original work for your for-profit products
- using a rainbow in lieu of an actual idea

Consider:

- donating 100% () of profit to a queer org
- hiring several (not just one) queer/trans creative to develop yr campaign
- removing yr product from the idea
- investing real $$$ in the idea
- educating/activating— tell a fucking story
- doing so 12 months of the year

also, if you are casting, make sure it is intersectional as hell.

there are really a lot of people in my mentions out here defending corporations. CORPORATIONS. i love materialism as much as the next gay but capitalism got y’all brainwashed !!!

lot of people also being like “but representation!! that counts for something!!” maybe 20/10 years ago, sure. but queer inclusion is no longer the exception. its the standard.

if we don’t hold brands accountable to better ideas, they will continue to see us as one-dimensional rainbow dollar signs, capitalizing on our oppression and giving nothing back for decades to come.

Also, pro-tip for journalists covering Pride campaigns/products for their respective outlets: Publicists/agencies love to avoid telling you how much their company is donating to queer nonprofits (or if they are at all). Here's an email I have sent maybe a dozen times this season: