Subtle gay pride apparel brands
Meanwhile, conservatives remain flummoxed by Target’s refusal to cater to their intolerance, and alt-right news outlets remain convinced that their Target boycott caused the store’s sales to tank. Target has been good to our community, though, through standing up for trans folks w/r/t bathrooms, moving away from gender-based signs, committing $20 million to installing gender-neutral single-stall bathrooms in stores that don’t have one, and making their stores obnoxiously gay for a month every year. In 2017 and in years prior, Target, a consistent LGBT ally, has publicly partnered with non-profits around their Pride Gear and engaged in high-level gimmickry: this year, not so much, although their press release is very enthusiastic regardless, especially regarding their exclusive release of Love Simon and the fact that they are selling The Harry’s Shave Kit in stores (100% of profits from that specific product do go to GLAAD.) They’ve got some fresh-faced queers on their website sharing their favorite Target items, aggressively rainbowed accessories, and cheap pronoun pins you could also easily pick up from a queer indie retailer! Only two companies on this list actually used one or more of the words represented in the LGBTQ+ acronym.
In total, the apparel we will consider today includes 23 variations on “Love” (including five “Love is Love” items and four “Love Wins”) as well as 15 takes on Pride, Equality, and being United. Many of these companies donate to LGBTQ non-profits independently of their Pride Collections. “Non-Profit Partner” refers to a non-profit who is the direct recipient of money raised around the company’s pride apparel collection. Undoubtedly most corporations do some bad things. This is a fact of capitalism. The rankings are mildly influenced by a company’s positive history with the LGBTQ community but are not influenced by the company’s overall ethics, their history or reputation in other areas, or by the politics, religious affiliations or lobbying activities of its leadership team. I’ve loosely grouped the collaborations into possibly arbitrary groups based on vague criteria, none of which I feel very strongly about. So, that’s my disclaimer: a great way to support LGBTQ community health is to put money into independent queer media, and I wish these companies did that.
#Subtle gay pride apparel brands free
They just want free coverage of their partnerships. However, as much as we often feel conflicted about corporations, most of the brands selling gay apparel this summer are giving significant donations to LGBTQ+ non-profits doing incredibly relevant work - and a corporation’s Pride collection can often suggest that they’ve got some good LGBTQ+ people working for them who are making innovative and relatively progressive choices.Ī quick sidenote: every June we’re bombarded with press releases about Pride branding tie-ins, but never do these companies actually want to buy advertising from us.
A time to take pride in who you are, especially if “who you are” is a person who is skeptical of Pride! The LGBTQ+ community’s contentious relationship with the corporations who cash in on / celebrate our community every June is a storied and well-documented saga, and every year we approach a new chapter of this epic tome.
LGBTQ Television Guide: What To Watch Now.