Pride 2025 - Using your Money to Support LGBTQ+ Rights

Introduction

For many of us, we have likely thought about what we can do to support Pride and LGBTQ+ rights. Be it as a member of the community or as an ally, there are a number of ways you can do this, but have you ever thought about using your money?
The way we choose to invest our money, and who we choose to invest it through (i.e. which investment manager), can help to influence the world around us, especially when it comes to corporate behaviour. Investing money in a positive manner is often presented as a way of helping to address environmental issues such as climate change, but it can also be used as a tool for promoting positive social change, such as improving support for LGBTQ+ rights.

Supporting Good Practice

By choosing to invest in such a way that your money is linked to companies showing best (or at least good) practice when it comes to LGBTQ+ representation and protection, you and your manager can play a role in signalling that such practices are appealing to investors. This can promote good practices among companies, and encourage those that could do more to follow suit. To know more about how exactly this works, see our “Your Money Makes a Difference” guide.

So, what does good practice look like in this area? There are numerous things companies can do to support LGBTQ+ rights, but here we’ll focus on three.
Applying Fair Policies

One the best foundations on which to build good practice is policies. By establishing documentation regarding positions on various topics, companies can enshrine values and expectations in a formal manner, and therefore begin the process of ensuring that respect for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), for example, is embedded within corporate governance.
 
In doing so, companies can also lay the groundwork for additional actions, such as anti-harassment measures and onboarding training for new employees. If it is made clear that understanding and respecting the rights of LGBTQ+ colleagues is a core requirement for staff, this can help to mandate the inclusion of relevant training as part of staff onboarding and development, for example.

Furthermore, if respect for DEI and LGBTQ+ inclusion is established as a formal requirement in policies, employees may feel more comfortable in reporting instances of discrimination and harassment, knowing that such behaviours are clearly prohibited, and that the rights of themselves or their colleagues to freedom from harassment are protected.

However, it should be noted that not all policies are created equal. Policies implemented by companies can vary significantly in terms of clarity, strength of language, and details of controls that are (or need to be) put in place. Policies also need to be formally reviewed and updated, if they are to remain in line with ever evolving understanding and best practice. As such, the simple presence of a policy should be seen as a starting point, rather than an end goal.
Establishing Resource Groups

Forming employee resource groups (or ERGs as they’re often known) is another way in which companies can support LGBTQ+ rights, as well as the rights of other groups and communities. Similar to policies, a key characteristic of these groups is their formality - they are not loosely organised hobby groups. While membership should always be voluntary, these groups are employee led but company supported; they are officially recognised as groups existing within company structures.

By forming these groups, companies can demonstrate to both current and potential employees that the groups or communities they belong to are recognised and valued, and by extension help employees to feel seen and respected. They can also help to create spaces for people with shared life experiences to share their views, and enjoy a sense of community within the workplace.

Furthermore, ERGs can also act as critical friends and advisers to companies, and help companies ensure that policy development and decision making reflects the lived experiences of communities that have been historically overlooked. This can include helping employers remain in tune to the challenges faced by, and the evolving needs of, the LGBTQ+ community.
 

Facilitating and Promoting Allyship

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, allyship is “the quality or practice of helping or supporting other people who are part of a group that is treated badly or unfairly, although you are not yourself a member of this group”.

Creating environments where allyship is both encouraged and enabled can enhance the inclusion of LGBTQ+ employees (as well as all other employees that belong to minority groups) by, for example, demonstrating company-level commitment to inclusion, amplifying marginalised voices, and encouraging employees to challenge bias and discrimination.

By implementing company-wide measures to facilitate and promote allyship, employers can not only signal to the LGBTQ+ community that company-level steps are being taken to encourage true inclusion and support for marginalised groups, but demonstrate that steps taken go beyond simple policy implementation and the odd training programme.

Not only do allyship programmes help to raise awareness of issues faced by the LGBTQ+ community among non- members, but they also provide non-members with the knowledge and tools to truly support colleagues who are members.

By providing non-member employees with the platforms and channels to champion the rights of LGBTQ+ colleagues, the voices of the community (and all other marginalised groups) can be amplified, which can help to raise the profile of any issues being faced by community members, and even enhance the efforts of ERGs.

Similarly, allyship programmes can encourage community allies to report and challenge any incidents of bias, discrimination, and harassment that occur. Education provided as part of these programmes can increase awareness of these issues, and provide the knowledge to help identify incidents when they occur, but true allyship programmes ensure that non-community members are aware of their right (and responsibility) to report such problems, and provide the tools to do so.
 
Often, members of marginalised groups are afraid to raise concerns or report cases of discrimination for fear of further discrimination or harassment, which can prevent company leadership from being made aware of cultural issues within organisations, and generally perpetuate environments that are not welcoming or supportive of LGBTQ+ rights. By highlighting the right and responsibility of non-community members to stand up for the rights of their LGBTQ+ colleagues, allyship programmes can act as a remedy for this.

Avoiding or Engaging on Bad Practice

In addition to sending signals by supporting companies with good practices, investors and managers can also send signals by avoiding investing in companies showing bad practice, or engage with them to encourage change. Engagement is a key element of the responsible investment managers toolbox, and involves leveraging inside influence and pressure to drive changes in corporate practices.

But what practices or behaviours could be targeted as part of avoidance or engagement strategies?

Poor Track Records

The first and most obvious criteria that could be considered when it comes to avoidance strategies is the track records of companies. If, for example, there have been confirmed reports of LGBTQ+ discrimination by a company, then this would be clear grounds for avoidance. If investors do exclude such companies on a large enough scale, this can signal to companies that failing to prevent such events is unacceptable to investors, and therefore drive them towards change.

Engagement could also be used to address these issues, and is sometimes the first port-of-call for investment firms before any divestment decision is made. The problem is raised by the investment firm, and the company is asked to demonstrate that it is taking appropriate actions, in order to prevent divestment.

Lack of Transparency

A second area for avoidance or engagement is transparency, or in this case a lack thereof. In order to avoid any unseen risks, investors can avoid making investments in companies that are not adequately transparent about any policies, measures, or protections relevant to LGBTQ+ employees. If a company makes some relevant disclosures, but there are grounds for improvement in their breadth and depth, this is when engagement by investors can encourage improvements.
 

Inadequate Policies, Measures, and Initiatives

A third avoidance criteria can relate to the quality of policies, measures, and initiatives that are implemented by companies. Even if a company is fully transparent regarding what is has implemented, this does not mean that its efforts go far enough.

Simple policies that are very brief and generic, and measures which seem surface-level and are not underpinned by clear governance and accountability, for example, may not be deemed adequate risk migration to justify investment. Once again, this could be an area for engagement, if such policies and measures are deemed adequate enough to justify initial investment, but where there are grounds for improvement.

‘Rainbow Washing’

Finally, another issue that investors may wish to be on the lookout for is what is known as ‘rainbow washing’. Neatly summarised by Fair Planet, this is use of “rainbow-themed symbolism in branding, advertising,
merchandise or social media, ostensibly in solidarity with LGBTQ+ people during pride month, but without active support of LGBTQ+ people’s identities or rights”.

There have been a number of occasions where companies have faced major criticism for engaging in this sort of behaviour, when it appears that the companies in question are doing it for their own gain.

While adopting a Pride-based logo or similar is of course welcomed, it cannot be seen as an adequate way of contributing to LGBTQ+ inclusion. Companies must also prove they are taking real actions to support the community through their own actions or activism.

To read more about this, see this blog from Calum Palmer, an employee at our sister company Ethical Screening.

Final Thoughts

As an investor, be you an individual, family office, a charity, or a trust, your money has power. In the same way that you can influence the world by choosing how and where to spend your money, you can do the same with how you invest.
 
If LGBTQ+ rights are of particular importance to you, then consider how you can invest your money in such a way that these rights can be enhanced and protected. Talk to your adviser, talk to your manager, talk to anyone who will listen, and you may be surprised at what you can achieve.

Stay Proud.