Pride in 2025 feels heavy, defiant, rebelliously joyful, anti-establishment, and terrifying all at once. As a business that prioritizes inclusivity and human decency, we’ve been thinking about how critical it is for like-minded organizations to advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community year-round, not only in June. Even if your organization isn’t LGBTQIA+ focused, let’s consider how everyday business practices can and should remain an expression of values, especially right now.

If you’re with us so far, chances are you’re dedicated to making the world a tangibly better place. It might take generations to feel the impact of your work, but you do it anyway. Whether in healthcare, the environment, children’s well-being, civil rights, or education, the fight towards progress can be one step forward, two steps back. For transgender kids and adults in America, it has been over 850 steps back.

These bills are an attempt to erase trans people from society. It’s violence veiled in bureaucracy. Places where transgender people are safe to simply exist are shrinking. Looking at a map of America through the lens of anti-trans national risk assessment, it’s difficult not to feel like the walls are closing in.

The Trump campaign spent over $222 million on anti-trans propaganda in the lead-up to the election. Misinformation is spreading like wildfire, and junk science is being pursued while funding for real science is being slashed.

The assault on the trans community is troubling on its own. When we step back and consider it amid a broader context, it’s grimly foreboding. Transgender people have often been the “canary in the coal mine” as the first targets of violent, fascist regimes. If we look back to early May 1933 in Berlin, one of the first targets of the Nazi regime was the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft—the Institute of Sexology—a pioneering research institution and clinic housing the first decades of research on the transgender and queer community. On May 6, 1933, the Nazis raided the Institute and burned their collection in Bebelplatz Square.

Recent events in the U.S. echo these actions. The digital records of transgender people are being erased and organizations of all types are being pressured to comply. Did the hairs on your neck just stand up? It’s an eerie echo of all-too-recent history. Leaders in the trans rights movement have lost faith in institutions to save them as members of the Democratic party begin to abandon the fight for LGBTQIA+ rights as a weak bargaining chip with the Trump administration. Nonprofits, foundations, and all leaders in the social impact space should step up and apply the pressure. We are in a crucial moment in history that requires vigilant pushback on hate and advocating for the most vulnerable among us.

Speak up this June, Yes!, but no matter what your plans for Pride are, consider the actions big and small that will have an impact year-round.

How to integrate LGBTQIA+ advocacy into your organization

Services

Are your services inclusive, welcoming, and protective of trans people seeking support? Are there gender-neutral bathrooms on site? Is there a way to update their name in your communication systems regardless of a name change’s legal status? Ensure facilities and staff are equipped to make all community members feel safe. Curious about the difference between gender, sex, or any other terms mentioned here? Check out the PFlag glossary.

Language

Is your language inclusive of the full gender spectrum? For example, if you find yourself typing “men and women” consider ways to expand your language to say “men, women, and gender-expansive individuals.” Challenge whether it’s even necessary to reference gender— could you simply say “people?”

Imagery

Does your brand imagery reflect the expansive reality of gender expression? Trans people exist in all walks of life and can often be pigeon-holed to appearing only in pride campaigns or worse, fear-mongering misinformation campaigns. The reality is that trans people are everywhere all year round, and depicting trans people’s normal, boring everyday existence is profoundly powerful. Normalize including trans people in brochures, fundraising campaigns, office signage, and ordinary social content.

Data Collection

Are you collecting gender data via volunteer or donor information, or anywhere else? Is this data really needed? If so, be sure to include options to select “nonbinary” or “prefer not to disclose.” Outside of a healthcare setting, there is little need for more detail. In fact, further inquiry runs the risk of being invasive and invalidating to trans people.

Partnerships

Who your organization works with is a strong signal of your values. Are corporate sponsors or other entities you work with welcoming to the trans community? Many sectors are feeling pressure to comply with the current administration’s mission of erasure; partnering with a brand at odds with your values can hurt your organization.

Has your organization ever worked with trans influencers or creators? Outside of Pride? Including trans people in your social content year-round is a strong show of support.

Are you forming alliances with LGBTQIA+ and trans advocacy organizations? There are likely more intersections between your work and theirs than you may think, and they could use the support—many are fighting for their very survival. The Trevor Project, Lambda Legal, PFlag, and GLAAD are large, national organizations with many mechanisms for partnership. There are also a number of trans-led and operated organizations like Trans Lifeline and the Gender Liberation March who are on the front lines of this work. Want to go local? Chances are, there’s a grassroots organization in your city with events to support your local trans community, like Doll Invasion’s annual invasion of Fire Island Pines in NYC, Brave Trails’ multi-state summer camps, or Fiesta Youth’s prom in Texas.

Community management

Comment sections can be a dangerous place. Are you monitoring the responses to your social posts or other brand forums? Simple keyword filtering on Meta and deleting or responding to discriminatory comments can be tedious, but it’s necessary to provide safe and inclusive spaces for all to join.

Your organization’s everyday actions and the words and imagery you choose can shift perceptions of vulnerable communities in big ways. If you need help with messaging truly aligned to your values and goals, our door (inbox) is always open. Drop us a line, we’re here to help.

HelpGood is an LGBTQIA+ owned business that has produced award-winning advocacy work and so much more.