Beyond Rainbow Washing: Meaningful Pride Month Engagement and Corporate Allyship
Celebrating Pride with Purpose
As Pride festivals kick off around the country, businesses across New Zealand will be updating their logos, hanging rainbow flags, and maybe even hosting a morning tea with rainbow cupcakes. While these gestures can show support, meaningful corporate allyship goes far beyond one-off events. True inclusivity requires real policies, ongoing action, and a commitment to creating safe and supportive environments for rainbow employees, clients, and communities.
At Gibson Sheat, we’ve partnered with Rainbow Wellington, a longstanding advocacy and networking group, to ensure that our approach is more than just symbolic. We’re committed to creating a workplace and legal practice that is genuinely inclusive, not just during Pride month, but every day of the year.
Meet Sam: Our Pride Champion
To help strengthen our connection with rainbow communities, we’ve appointed Sam as our firm’s Pride Champion. Sam is also the Chair of Rainbow Wellington, which means he brings both legal expertise and lived experience to the conversation. His role isn’t about being a one-person solution for every Rainbow-related legal matter, rather, it’s about connection.
“I’m not the type of lawyer who can do everything”, Sam explains. “But I can help connect clients with the right people and provide context to ensure they feel comfortable navigating legal systems that weren’t always designed with them in mind”.
That’s an important distinction. Many businesses want to be allies but don’t always know where to start. Sometimes, the best approach isn’t about trying to do everything yourself, it’s about connecting with the right organisations, resources, and experts to ensure real impact.
How Businesses Can Foster Genuine Inclusivity
So, what does meaningful allyship actually look like? It starts with challenging assumptions.
Language plays a huge role in inclusivity. Many business interactions are built on gendered defaults, from documents and client forms to how we greet people (e.g., ladies and gentlemen or he/she pronouns). Making small adjustments can make a big difference, especially as more young people identify outside the traditional male-female binary.
“It’s about listening and mirroring”, Sam explains. “For example, if a client refers to their partner as ‘they’, then I use ‘they’ when speaking about them. It’s about respecting how people identify rather than making assumptions. It can be a bit awkward when I mention my partner, and someone asks ‘her’ name!”.
Beyond language, businesses can look at practical changes
We’re committed to learning and making meaningful improvements where we can, guided by the needs of rainbow communities. These will depend on your business, but could include:
- Gender-neutral bathrooms instead of male/female labels
- Inclusive policies that explicitly address homophobia and transphobia in the same way as racism or other forms of discrimination
- Running rainbow awareness trainings for staff
- Creating an internal rainbow staff group or network
- HR support for transitioning staff, including leave policies that recognise medical needs
- Pronoun options on forms and email signatures, allowing staff and clients to share how they wish to be addressed
Importantly, it’s not just about what’s written down, it’s about ensuring policies are understood, implemented, and enforced. If someone experiences discrimination or harassment, is there a clear process in place to handle it? A diversity statement on your website is great, but without real action behind it, it can feel hollow.
Avoiding Rainbow Washing
“At the end of the day, businesses don’t get to declare themselves a safe space for rainbow communities, rainbow people decide that for themselves”, says Sam. This is an important perspective. Corporate allyship shouldn’t be treated as a branding exercise. If a company markets itself as an inclusive workplace or service provider, it needs to back that up with real investment in its rainbow employees and clients.
One way to do this is by giving back to the community. For example, Sam mentioned that “Rainbow Wellington membership fees go directly into funding Pride events and community support initiatives. So when businesses sign up, they’re not just showing support, they’re actively contributing, and Gibson Sheat has signed up”.
Similarly, organisations like InsideOUT Kōaro and Pride Pledge provide workplace training and resources for companies serious about inclusion. These aren’t just one-off workshops; they’re ongoing support systems that help workplaces stay informed and responsive to the needs of Rainbow employees.
Creating a Workplace That Feels Safe for Everyone
When we asked Sam about this, he suggested “for businesses looking to improve their inclusivity, a great place to start is by reviewing existing policies. Are anti-discrimination policies clear and well-communicated? Are HR teams equipped to support an employee who is transitioning? Do parental leave policies account for same-sex couples and non-binary parents?”
Even small changes can make a difference, like ensuring workplace dress codes don’t reinforce outdated gender norms or considering how team-building events and social activities can be more inclusive.
A lot of businesses will, at some point, have an employee who transitions while working there. The question is: have you thought about how you would support them before that situation arises? Policies should be proactive, not reactive.
Our Commitment at Gibson Sheat
At Gibson Sheat, we’re proud to be a Rainbow Wellington partner and to take part in meaningful Pride Festival initiatives. More importantly, we’re committed to real, ongoing inclusivity, whether that’s through the way we support our staff, how we serve our clients, or how we engage with the wider community.
For us, it’s not about being all things to all people, it’s about connecting people with the right support and ensuring our legal services are accessible and welcoming for everyone.
If you’d like to learn more about our involvement with Rainbow Wellington or discuss how we can support rainbow clients in navigating legal matters, get in touch with us, or contact Sam at sam.french@gibsonsheat.com.
