Pride is Easy, Allyship is Hard. How to Measure Corporate LGBT+ Support
Pride marketing is fun and highly visible, but meaningful allyship is harder to see. Internal policies, employee benefits, and long-term commitments are what really move the needle. The Corporate Equality Index helps look beyond just surface-level support.
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Reflecting on Pride, Allyship, and Corporate Involvement
Now that we’re just about finished with peak Pride season – with tons of cities and towns celebrating Pride in their own way, all over the United States, and the world – I want us to reflect. As you know, in the US, the month of June is particularly special with the anniversary of the marriage equality decision, as well as the anniversary of the Stonewall Riot giving everyone in the community something to celebrate this month. With that said, it’s not just us celebrating, but it’s also our allies – including heterosexual mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, and yes, even corporate organizations.
The Annual Debate: Corporate Presence at Pride
I think this is one hot-button topic every year – should the community be embracing big companies at Pride? Aren’t these companies just there for a profit, and are we content being pandered to? For me the answer is simple: YES… but I wouldn’t call it “pandering.” Maybe you disagree, and plenty of people do. Just browsing around on Twitter you’ll see exactly how vocal some parts of the community are on this topic. Let me know what you think! I actually stumbled upon a conversation while browsing that I thought might be relevant here.
Called Out: Bath & Body Works
For the sake of anonymity, I won’t name the original tweeter, but this was a conversation involving Bath & Body Works on June 16th 2019. The original tweeter wrote:
“Honestly @bathbodyworks, where do you guys get off selling pride themed items w.o. donating any profit from sales??!”
This was with an attached screenshot from the Bath & Body Works website showing their “SUNTAN 3-wick candle” which was inside of a rainbow-wrapped container, stating “Love is Here.” I can’t seem to find it on their website, but the candle might be regional. Otherwise, I’d provide a link! The product was on sale, retailing for $10.50, which was down from its $24.95 original price – which is over 50% off.
Bath & Body Works actually got back to this tweet within about 30 minutes and wrote:
“Thanks for reaching out! In addition to our annual contributions to non-profit organizations that support the LGBTQ+ community, our company will be making an additional $100K donation in celebration of Pride month!”
The original tweeter responded about five minutes later stating:
“I still don’t understand why you guys are marketing an item that is pride themed, without making a portion of THOSE sales for charity? More people will buy it thinking it’s in someway helping but it really has nothing to do with the overall amount?? Profits are more than 100k..."
Accountability vs. Optics
There’s quite a bit to unpack here, but I want to start the discussion by thanking the original tweeter. It’s people like this who help hold big organizations accountable and sometimes it’s needed to call out some bullshit. However, I also want to give some props to Bath & Body Works for their quick turnaround on their response – some organizations can take days, if they ever even get back to you at all. Social media is NOT easy, especially not for big companies that must undergo process before being able to put out a response. They responded within 30 minutes which is a lot faster than most companies in their same industry could probably achieve.
Why Fixed Donations Can Make Sense
Now, in terms of my thoughts on this situation: I think Bath & Body Works should keep selling that candle… regardless of any actual donations made from those specific sales. Here’s why: profits on individual products aren’t actually as high as you’d think and maybe wouldn’t surpass $100,000 on this ONE candle. Let’s do some math.
If we backtrack a bit, we know that this candle was on sale for 10.50, down over 50% from its original price. And, as you probably already know, there’s first the cost of production worked into that price which cannot be profited from, but that might be negligible given how cheap it may be to produce this type of product. (Or maybe not, I don’t really know a ton about candle production, so can’t speak to that.) But, I DO know that Bath & Body Works is most likely taking a profit margin – what margin exactly, I can’t know for sure, but let’s just say something like 30%, which is actually generous in some industries.
30% of $10.50 is only $3.15. This means Bath & Body is only making $3.15 per candle, given that the cost of production, as well as the costs of shipping to the store, displays, digital media, and anything else associated with bringing this product to the shelf, is not value they can profit from. It’s lost as cost, or as margin to other members of their supply chain.
Let’s reflect this across the $100,000 donation: Bath & Body stated this would be IN ADDITION to what than they already do, for Pride month. How many candles would they have to sell in order to hit $100,000 in, say, a 10%? With some quick math, they’d have to sell nearly 320,000 candles at a 10% donation. (Which is about $0.30 donated per candle.) In many industries, 320,000 units sold of a single product might be what they sell on a TOP performing item, which this candle might not be. By donating a set amount of $100,000, Bath & Body may actually be doing us a favor, because if they sold anything less than 320,000 units at 10% donate, we’d be getting less than $100,000 as it would depend on the performance of the product.
Choosing Where to Spend Our Money
This is just one example of corporate giving, and I don’t think Bath & Body should be getting any flak for their decision. I would much rather give my money to a company donating SOME portion to charity, versus a company like Chik-Fil-A that actually works ACTIVELY against our community by giving to organizations that are specifically anti-LGBT.
How Do We Know Which Companies Are Truly Pro-LGBT?
Now, I want to pivot from this conversation a bit because one question I think is important to answer is: How do we KNOW if a company is pro, or anti-LGBT? Is there any way to tell? Well, to some degree, there is. As someone who works at a fairly big company myself in the daytime, I can say firsthand that if you’re someone on the outside, looking in, it really isn’t that easy to discern what the culture may be like for LGBTQIA+ persons at any given company. This is because you aren’t in the know on the volunteering opportunities, donation events, or cultural initiatives that may be happening internally. This can make things a bit difficult if you’re like me and seek organizations that align with your belief systems.
HRC’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI)
I stumbled upon this quite recently and really felt the need to share it, as it’s not something I had heard of before – it’s the Human Rights Campaign’s “Corporate Equality Index.” It’s essentially a report, similar to those put out by Forbes, that instead rates organizations on their LGBT equality policies and initiatives.
It was established in 2002 and is the HRC’s attempt at rating businesses comprehensively on their policies, benefits, and practices towards LGBTQIA+ workers.
The Three Pillars of the CEI
The three pillars that the CEI rates on are important to know if you are interested in using this index to learn about a company you might be applying to or giving financial support:
- Non-discrimination policies across business entities – This is key, as the CEI uses this pillar as a way of NOT giving a free pass to those organizations who maintain friendly policies in some nations but not in others.
- Equitable benefits for LGBTQIA+ workers and their families – This is important to consider maybe on a basis of time – has your organization ALWAYS recognized LGBTQIA+ family dynamics in their policies?
- Supporting an inclusive culture and corporate social responsibility – This one should go without saying, but it’s the PERFECT metric to understanding a business’ commitment to “talking the talk” versus “walking the walk.”
What the CEI Reveals About Major Corporations
The HRC has been publishing this report for the past 17 years, and has grown significantly since 2002. As a fun fact: the CEI originally rated only 13 businesses in the US as LGBT friendly. It has since expanded, and today awards 572 organizations the distinction of “Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality.”
We’re in luck because the HRC has also compiled a summary of the Fortune 1000’s top 20 organizations, and provided their CEI rankings. Walmart, Apple, and Amazon all scored 100%. However, Berkshire Hathaway scored just 20%, the lowest among the top 20.
Private Industry vs. Public Policy
I really don’t want to sound all doom-and-gloom about the private industry. Although there are outliers, private industry has often outpaced lawmakers in terms of inclusive policies. At the time of this report, only 21 US states protected gender identity and only 22 protected sexual orientation at the state level.
A Final Thought on Corporate Allyship
I just thought that the Equality Index was an incredibly handy tool I hadn’t heard of before, and wanted to share it with those of you who might be seeking LGBTQIA+ positive organizations. While no index can perfectly capture internal culture, the CEI offers a meaningful signal of intent and accountability.
At the end of the day, a big company is still made up of people working day-to-day to make things like a rainbow candle happen.