MACY’S HONORS NATIONAL LGBTQ PRIDE MONTH

by John Russel Jones

Macy’s kicks off National Pride Month and honors the contributions of the LGBTQ community. In support of the company’s mission to build a brighter future with bold representation, Macy’s will launch its round-up and donation campaign in stores and online at macys.com to benefit its longtime partner The Trevor Project. Additionally, Macy’s will recognize Pride with exclusive merchandise available at select stores, on macys.com and its app, bring joy to local community Pride parades in select markets nationwide, highlight LGBTQ-owned brands, and host special events at select stores.

ABOVE: Photo by Anete Lusina, Pexels

“Fostering an inclusive culture and an environment that inspires, reflects, and provides equitable access for every one of us are foundational in driving our mission of building a brighter future for our colleagues, customers, and communities,” said Shawn Outler, Macy’s chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer. “Through our social purpose platform, Mission Every One, we are more committed than ever to making meaningful change to positively impact the lives of the LGBTQ community. This includes our efforts to empower the LGBTQ community to be their authentic selves all year-long and especially during Pride Month.”

Giving Back with The Trevor Project

In support of LGBTQ youth, Macy’s Pride + Joy celebration will launch its annual nationwide give-back campaign to benefit The Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and mental health organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning young people. Macy’s customers can directly impact and support youth mental health within the LGBTQ community nationwide through a charitable round-up campaign. Customers can donate online or round up their in-store purchase amount to donate the extra change (up to $0.99) to The Trevor Project. Macy’s has supported The Trevor Project through a variety of initiatives for more than a decade. As its national Pride partner, in the last three years, Macy’s has raised more than $3.3 million to help more than 53,000 LGBTQ youth in crisis through the organization’s life-saving mission and programming.

Pride is Always in Style

As part of its Own Your Style brand platform, Macy’s empowers customers to celebrate their individuality and personal style through a curated assortment of the best brands and latest trends. In addition to the round up and giving campaign, Macy’s shoppers can also support The Trevor Project with style. From June 1 through June 30, Macy’s will donate to The Trevor Project five percent of the purchase price of select ID Ideology Pride-inspired printed tees and shorts (up to $15,000) available exclusively in select Macy’s stores and on macys.com/purpose.

Throughout the month of June, Macy’s stores and macys.com will showcase The Trevor Project’s life-saving messages to spread awareness and highlight resources available to LGBTQ youth in crisis. To kick off the awareness campaign, The Trevor Project and Macy’s partnered to incorporate members of the LGBTQ community as well as Trevor and Macy’s colleagues and volunteers in marketing materials and a special PSA to run on social media.

To help customers live boldly with Pride + Joy, select Macy’s stores nationwide and macys.com will offer a celebratory assortment of Pride-inspired merchandise within dedicated Macy’s Pride + Joy shops and displays throughout the store. Rainbow patterns and bold colors abound in exclusive and curated merchandise across apparel, shoes, accessories, beauty, home, and tech. Macy’s premier brands—including Adidas, Armani Exchange, Art & Eden, Betsey Johnson, Calvin Klein, COACH, DKNY Sport, Epic Threads, Guess, ID Ideology, Levi’s, Marmot Mountain, Martha Stewart, MICHAEL Michael Kors, Nautica, Polo Ralph Lauren, Sun + Stone and more—will feature unique product in celebration of Pride.

 

LGBTQ Brand Spotlight

As part of Macy’s commitment to amplifying inclusive and diverse brands, up-and-coming LGBTQ-owned brands will be highlighted to customers this June. Reality TV star Reza Farahan will be a featured co-host on a Macy’s Live shopping episode at 4 p.m. ET on June 16, featuring his unisex luxury haircare collection Be Obsessed by Reza.

Available now at select stores and on macys.com, the following brands and their unique stories will also be showcased on macys.com/purpose as part of Macy’s Pride + Joy celebration: AfroPick, a hair tool collection for natural hair that combines art and culture to create hair tools that serve as a symbol of unity, strength, and heritage; Earth’s Nectar, a clean beauty, natural hair care brand that specializes in vegan-friendly and salon-quality products with higher concentrations of active ingredients; Michael Aram, a luxury home brand that specializes in nature-inspired handcrafted interior décor, dinnerware, jewelry, and sculptures; andThe Phluid Project, a collection of gender-free fashion.

Community Engagement

This year, as communities nationwide recognize Pride, Macy’s will support more than 20 local activations across the country where colleagues will showcase their Pride + Joy—including Macy’s hometown of New York City on June 26. In partnership with NYC Pride, the famed Broadway windows and façade of Macy’s Herald Square flagship will be decked out with the colors of the Progress Pride flag while Macy’s colleagues participate in the parade.

Macy’s customer favorite drag brunches also return with weekly performances at its New York and Chicago flagships. Kicking off on June 4, customers won’t want to miss the celebrity-inspired shows at Stella 34 Trattoria at Macy’s Herald Square—hosted by Shuga Cain from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” Season 11—and the beloved Walnut Room at Macy’s State Street. Tickets are required in advance and are available at flipphoneevents.com.

Allies for a Brighter Future

In addition to The Trevor Project, Macy’s will continue supporting various local and national organizations focused on education, economic development, and social justice for LGBTQ communities as part of its social purpose platform, Mission Every One, which includes directing $5 billion of Macy’s, Inc. spend by 2025 to creating a more equitable and sustainable future. Supported organizations include the Human Rights Campaign, National Center for Transgender Equality, Out in Tech, and others.

Authenticity and education are enabled by Macy’s Pride employee resource group (ERG), which serves as a valuable resource for initiatives that affect the LGBTQ community. From education surrounding respect of pronouns to allyship training and volunteerism, Pride ERG members support the work that empowers the enterprise and Macy’s customers. Macy’s commitment to diversity and inclusion in all areas of business has been consistently lauded by its achievement of a 100 percent score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, the national benchmarking tool on LGBTQ-focused corporate policies and practices. Learn more at macysinc.com/humancapitalreport.

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