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.
#TARGET SELLING GAY PRIDE T SHIRTS 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.