Beyond Pride: Our Role in LGBTQ+ Storytelling

1. Marketing Collateral

People crave realistic portrayals and seek to relate with the individuals presented in marketing. When creating your marketing resources hub, it's paramount to make guidelines and include tools that will help show the gender spectrum and feature queer people in a non-stereotypical way.

The following are resources that can steer you in the direction for more inclusive representation in your brand stories.

Stock Images

• The LGBTQ Image Guidebook, created by Getty Images and GLAAD, covers how brands can use LGBTQ+ images to appropriately reflect diversity within their communities.
• The Gender Spectrum Collection by VICE features a gender-identity inclusive selection of images that break from the conventional framework of stock photos by representing queer individuals engaged in careers, relationships, and hobbies.

Inclusive Language

Words hold a lot of power. As the definition of inclusion continues to evolve with time, so should our use and understanding of inclusive vocabulary. Here are some resources to remove bias from your copy and communications.

• Inclusive language guides by Boston University, Northwestern University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will help you make decisions about using gendered language in your writing.
• GLAAD’s Media Reference Guide offers an in-depth understanding of non-binary terms for gender and sexuality.
• Tools like Textio check your marketing copy for any bias. And when crafting a job description, these tools can inform you of unintentional gender coding.  

Best Practices

• Google’s All In toolkit, built in partnership with U.S. organizations, features audience insights and is designed to help eliminate demographic stereotypes in business and make inclusive strategic and creative choices.
• The Human Rights Campaign Foundation collected actionable advice in their LGBTQ+ Marketing and Advertising: Best Practices article.
• Twitter asked LGBTQ+ creators to share advice for brands on authentically connecting during Pride Month.

Additional Resources

• 2022 International Pride Calendar has a list of Pride Festivals worldwide. If you’ve missed the opportunity to celebrate Pride in June, there are LGBTQ-related awareness days throughout the year.
• P&G and GLAAD want to help companies get representation right. Alongside releasing its survey results in May, the company announced “The Visibility Project,” an initiative to promote accurate, authentic LGBTQ+ inclusion in ads with a focus on Fortune 100 advertisers.
• Check out the courses designed to get diversity right in your marketing: Marketing with Purpose Course by Microsoft and this collection of Diversity and Inclusion courses on Coursera.

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2. Talent Pool

We all know that the team is a cornerstone to DEI culture. When putting your team together, however, it is important to understand that “diversity is bodies; inclusion is culture” (Deray McKesson).

With Your Current Team

• Glassdoor recently showcased its findings on the low satisfaction levels of LGBTQ+ employees in comparison to their colleagues, alongside a guide for employers to create a more inclusive workplace for LGBTQ+ employees.
• Team leaders need to invest time into learning about gender and reimagining it within the context of their own companies. Not doing so misses critical conversations with customers and employees.

When Hiring and Recruiting

• Grow Your Circle is a tool that connects content creation studios, agencies, companies, and brands to underrepresented creatives.
• Human Rights Campaign shares some resources for LGBTQ+ recruitment as well as LGBTQ+ Professional and Student Associations, and LGBTQ+ Professional Recruitment Events.

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3. Self-Awareness

Practicing self-awareness is the first step to embracing any kind of diversity. The more we are able to recognize the roots of our unconscious biases, the easier it is to be receptive to other people’s perspectives. Listen to the experiences of individuals around you who identify as LGBTQ+ in order to develop a closer, more personal understanding of queer culture.

Besides direct conversations, there are plenty of other tools available to encourage participation and learning about the LGBTQ+ community.

Resources For Creative Professionals

• Do The WeRQ Town Halls, which are still in the making, will be communal spaces in which members get the opportunity to interact with key figures in the marketing industry to discuss topics surrounding LGBTQ+ representation.
• Multicultural, Diversity + Marketing Resources brings you the latest news, expert directories, jobs and events to help you plan and carry out multicultural marketing programs to reach consumers from various backgrounds.

Resources To Understand Gender

To debunk the myth that representing the gender spectrum is complex, companies must learn the fundamentals of gender and adapt their approach in order to continue to attract future talent and clients. Reimagine Gender works toward helping communities thrive by “educating people about evolving understandings of gender and providing them with resources and tools to actively reimagine gender in their world." Here are a few to start:

• How To Ask About Gender Identity In Forms
• Gender and Your Business
• Shifting Gender Norms
• Reimagine Gender Across Your Company

Resources To Understand Queer Culture

• Listen: Spotify’s Pride Hub, Stitcher’s Premium Pride, Audible’s Queer Stories by Queer Voices, Silvia Prada’s Pride Playlist
• Watch: Netflix, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Documentaries, TED
• Read: Social Justice’s LGBTQ+ Books Collection, Oprah Daily’s 115 LGBTQ+ Authors Share the Books that Changed Their Lives, HarperCollins’s Pride On Every Page reading list for children
• Follow: photographers, influencers, creatives, scientists and tech leaders, founders and entrepreneurs, investors and VCs
• Participate: LGBTQ+ organizations that are making an impact within the community

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