Most companies like to show that they care about queer people. Following gains in rights and legal recognition over the last decades, it is now a commonly established ritual to display a rainbow logo during Pride Month. Big corporations such as North Face, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Target and Kohl’s have all recently ran inclusive ad campaigns featuring Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI+) people. This makes sense from a business perspective, with “pink money” weighing 3.5 trillion euros globally and around 874 billion euros in the EU. However, many in the LGBTQI+ community will brush off these gestures as pinkwashing if they are not backed up with more substantial action. This could mean a company standing by a queer influencer hired to promote a product when they are attacked by the far-right as a result of this exposure. Or including out LGBTQI+ people at the top of the corporate ladder.
Over the past decade, I have followed the debate over LGBTQI+ inclusion as a practitioner and more recently as a researcher studying the role businesses play in the political sphere, including on social issues such as LGBTQI+ rights. And I can testify that diverse corporate boards are a long shot from becoming reality.
The data, or lack thereof, speak for themselves. According to OutLEADERSHIP’s estimates, less than 1% of the 5,670 board seats at Fortune 500 companies are held by LGBTQI+ directors. Europe is worse still, with no data to show on the matter. This comes as a particular surprise given the European Commission’s recent pledges to boost opportunities for the community.
