Ben Finzel is president of RENEWPR in Washington, D.C. and a partner in The Change Agencies.
| • | What Pride Month Means in 2025(LGBTQ+) Mon., Jun. 23, 2025
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| • | Is 2024 the Year of the LGBTQ Ally? It Ought to Be(LGBTQ+) Fri., Jun. 28, 2024
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| • | "PinkHushing" and Pride Month: Ally Voices are Needed Now More than Ever(DEI) Tue., Jun. 20, 2023
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| • | 'Pride Month' Should Not Mean 'Pander Month'(LGBTQ+) Mon., Jun. 20, 2022
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| • | It's Time for Communicators to Lead the Change(PR Commentary) Tue., Jun. 16, 2020
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| • | DC Group Promotes LGBTQ PR Jobs, Rights(Economic Development) Thu., Jul. 12, 2018 DC Family Communicators launches in DC to offer networking, promote job opportunities and push for equal treatment for members of the LGBTQ community. |
The current assaults on LGBTQ rights make it essential that communicators ensure they are fluent in the fight against those assaults. LGBTQ people—including the people you work with and your friends—need to step up the fight for our rights. And your clients—companies, organizations, nonprofits, advocates, and others—are going to be thrust into the middle of this fight whether they want to be or not.
After the rainbow-colored logos and Pride flag-bedecked websites disappear at the end of this month, we must remember that Pride is year-round. Now is no time to disengage. In fact, the opposite is true: 2024 should be the Year of the LGBTQ Ally.
Simply changing your corporate logo to a rainbow and remaining silent on the continued attacks on the LGBTQ community won’t cut it this year. Companies and organizations are going to have to take a side in this conversation.
An ever-larger number of companies and organizations are using Pride Month to proclaim how LGBTQ-friendly or supportive they are—but how can ethical companies or organizations really show their commitment to meeting the needs and expectations of LGBTQ audiences?
As we all reel from the twin shocks of a continuing global pandemic and the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and so many others, many of our institutions, corporations and organizations are vowing to do better and to be better. Will now be the time when all of those promises are manifested into positive, permanent action? (1 reader comment)