At its worst, rainbow-washing is an attempt to distract or conceal homophobic, transphobic, or biphobic behaviors. It's when the most someone can muster to show support to the LGBTQ+ community is changing their avatar to a rainbow flag or putting a Pride Month filter over their profile picture.
There's a word for this: rainbow-washing.Īt its best, rainbow-washing is an entirely calorie-free form of allyship. And then others - read: massive corporations that often have a history of discriminatory policies or affiliations with anti-LGBTQ+ politicians - try to use the rainbow flag as a Band-Aid to cover up all their insidious behavior during the rest of the year. Some change their avatars to signal they are part of the LGBTQ+ community, others to show their love and support. Scrolling through your social media feeds, you're likely spotting more and more rainbow avatars as everyone celebrates Pride Month.
