What is Rainbow-Washing?

During Pride month, everything seems a little gayer. For straight people, perhaps. But for queers, things are gay all year round, at least to some degree.

Being queer is just another part of a queer person’s identity and way of life. It’s the partner they come home to, the way they get dressed, the community they celebrate with on the weekends.

Image by Boris Štromar from Pixabay

Every June, the gates to queer life are officially opened to the straight community. Pride means celebrating progress, love, and civil rights together—and that’s ideally how it should be!

In the piece, Genuine Pride or Corporate Rainbow Washing, writer Gerardo Bandera describes the business side of Pride month.

“By the time Pride month rolls around, the corporate world explodes in a colourful carnival of pro-LGBTQ+ advertisements, campaigns and rebrandings,” he writes. “What was once a civil rights protest and riot to demand equal rights has therefore become part of the corporate pipeline.”

Because of Pride’s popular zeitgeist today, companies are incentivized to push out Pride campaigns that showcase queer love and identity. But, oftentimes, the move is more strategic than it is equitable.

In the 2024 piece, What Is Rainbow Washing? How This Sneaky Marketing Tactic Hurts the Queer Community, writer Lola Méndez breaks down “rainbow-washing” and its negative implications.

“What you hope to see from companies, churches and other groups is genuine allyship that extends beyond the days of June. After all, advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community is important year ’round,” Méndez says. “Rainbow washing capitalizes off of queer people without tangibly supporting LGBTQ+ equity, acceptance or inclusivity.”

Like pinkwashing and greenwashing, rainbow washing is an unauthentic attempt to publicly make products, advertisements, and branding gayer than company values on the inside.

“Keywords such as ‘love is love’ and queer imagery can create a false sense of allyship and mislead consumers,” Méndez goes on to say. “When companies co-opt queer symbols and language as simply marketing ploys there are no tangible benefits for LGBTQ+ folks. Instead, it diverts sales away from genuinely LGBTQ+-owned businesses.”

Not all companies who wave the rainbow flag in June are doing it tastelessly. No matter what, Pride month will be inherently queerer than the other months of the year. So, when it comes to rainbow-washing, you’ll have to think beyond what you see in storefront displays.

Image by Mircea Iancu from Pixabay

Where does the company stand on equal rights for queer people all year round? Does the company employ queer talent and foster an inclusive environment in the office? Do they donate extra funds to charitable organizations that uplift queer causes—or do they do the opposite?

“Pride provides companies with the opportunity to make their values clear, show support for their LGBTQ+ employees and, in the best cases, use their platforms to demand social change,” Bandera says.

Let’s remember: Pride began as a protest for equality. We’ve come a long way since Stonewall. We’ve come a long way since gay marriage was signed into law. Today, we drive past billboards selling household gadgets to gay couples.

The popularity of pride celebrations today indicates just how much queer life has integrated into mainstream society. But being an ally doesn’t mean showing up for one month. True allyship—from companies, from the government, from our friends and family—sticks around all year round.

On that note: happy July, and happy Pride.