Celebrating Pride Month: Gifts, Parties & Other Ways Your Small Business Can Show Support

Wondering how to support Pride Month as a small business? Don’t know where to start? We have answers and ideas. Following are ways to support LGBTQIA+ communities including a brief history of this month’s importance, Pride gifts for customers and employees, how to celebrate with specials, and more.

What Is Pride Month?

LGBTQIA+ Pride Month celebrates lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people, including their contributions in history, culture, and their communities. The month involves special events such as festivals, marches, and parades. Many decorations and LGBTQ gifts are rainbow-themed. Rainbow colors and the rainbow symbol represent the diversity of the LGBTQIA+ community, human sexuality, and gender.

LGBTQIA+ Pride Month honors the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan, a series of spontaneous demonstrations by members of the gay community in response to a police raid at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. The riots are considered the pivotal event that transformed the gay liberation movement and fight for LGBTQIA+ rights in the United States.

What Does LGBTQ Stand For?

LGBTQ stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer. These terms are used to describe a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Pride Month also celebrates a range of other identities considered outside of mainstream sexual orientation. A few more details about the letters often associated with Pride Month and often included on Pride gifts, messaging, and decorations:

The term “queer” is an adjective used by some people whose sexual orientation is not exclusively heterosexual. Queer can also mean “questioning”.
For transgender people, the sex they were assigned at birth and their own internal gender identity do not match. Transgender people may or may not transition via medical procedures to change their bodies.
Sometimes additional letters are included such as I and A, representing “Intersexual” and “Asexual” orientations. An intersexual person is born with a combination of male and female biological traits. An asexual person has no sexual feelings or desires or is not sexually attracted to anyone.
Sometimes the symbol “+” is included to represent other identities.

When Is Pride Month?

Seeing rainbows and afraid you missed it? Wondering what month Pride Month is? In the U.S., it’s in June! LGBTQ Pride Month 2022 starts on June 1 and goes through June 30. (Some colleges and universities celebrate in April or May depending upon when their students leave campus for the summer.)

What Is an LGBTQ Ally?

An ally is a straight or cisgender person who supports and advocates for LGBTQIA+ people. (Cisgender describes a person whose gender identity and sex assigned at birth are the same.) Think of “ally” as an action, not a label. A few tips on being an ally¹:

Listen
Keep an open mind
Don’t assume all your coworkers are straight
Recognize your own prejudices and bias
Defend your LGBTQIA+ friends, colleagues, and acquaintances against discrimination

Overall, an ally believes and acts with the intent that all people, regardless of gender identity and sexual orientation, should be treated with dignity and respect. Your action can be verbal and emotional support for friends and coworkers, sharing Pride Month gifts, or any show of support that empowers people within the LGBT community.

When you become an ally of LGBTQ people, you help make society a better, safer place for all people who do not conform to conventional gender expectations.

How Can My Small Business Support Pride Month?

It is easy to help celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community during Pride Month! Here are a few ideas:

Signs and Social Media

Let customers know you support Pride Month by posting to your website and exhibiting customized signs or banners at your store or office building. Be part of local Pride Month activities with a booth, handouts, or sponsorships.

Special Products and Discounts

Offer coupons and discounts in honor of Pride Month. Position Pride-themed products in your window and prominently in your store, hotel, or service center. Offer LGBTQ gifts to customers and event attendees. Add a special Pride-themed (think rainbow) drink or menu item.

Party for Pride

Host an employee celebration at your office, or a customer event at your bar or restaurant. Include Pride-themed customized can coolers or promotional drinkware and spread empowering vibes well beyond the special occasion.

Giveaways for Customers and Employees

Help spread and celebrate Pride Month by distributing Pride gifts including your logo or slogan. We like these:

Velvet Touch Malibu Sunglasses: All Pride, all summer long! Imprint your messaging on the temple for visibility wherever the sun is shining.

Debossed with Color Fill Silicone Wristband: Pride is in the air and on the wrist with this customized wristband.

12″ Multi-Colored Beach Ball: Inside or outside, fun is in the air with this classic blow-up beach ball.

Full Color Everyday Commuter Drawstring Backpack: Pick one bright color or go for an assorted bundle and see your customers sporting every color of the rainbow.

Full Color 16 oz. Ava Plastic Stadium Cup: Bright, reusable, recyclable, and ready for every party.

Engraved 11 oz. Stainless Steel Gia Wine Glass: For a picnic in the park full of Pride, this tumbler wine glass is just right.

Mood Grip Water Bottle – 32 oz: Every mood says Pride with this color changing water bottle.

Nonwoven Fiesta Tote Bag: Bright, festive, and all the style you need to carry your essentials along the parade route.

Engraved Superhero Ombré Alpha Stylus Pen: This one’s called “superhero” and that, coupled with the rainbow vibe this stylus pen’s giving, kind of says it all. Distribute generously throughout Pride Month to community members, employees, students, customers, and allies everywhere.

Rainbows, Butterflies, and Your Small Business

Small business is about the power of community to support, grow, empower, and connect. Likewise, your message of support for the LGBTQIA+ community—including your customers, team members, and others—has a ripple effect like the proverbial butterfly’s wings. Your support gives life, strength, dignity, and power to those among us who need and deserve it.

Your smile to a customer can turn around their day, week, or month and by association affect those they care about and who care about them. Similarly, your expression of support during Pride Month, whether Pride month gifts, a sign, or a sponsorship, has ramifications that reach far beyond a single interaction or sale. Enjoy every ounce of progress. Enjoy Pride Month along with us!

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