American Airlines pioneered policies that aimed at practices for its LGBTQ staff members, passengers, customers, and supplies 25 years ago. Ever since 1994, they have been following fair practices and commendable ways to show support by way of starting what is called the EBRG, The Employee Business Resource Group, now better known as GLEAM.
Over the years, they’ve also gone miles ahead in extending their support and proving to always be there for the community. From marketing campaigns to brand messaging, their love and support for the community have been witnessed by millions and on many occasions.
GLEAM, the initiation of their support
As the famous “pillows and blankets incident” went viral, leaving the airlines in a state of crisis, a step was soon taken to turn that into a positive change in the company structure. On creating GLEAM in 1994, American Airlines also added policies that embrace fairness, giving equal opportunities to employees, acceptance in diversity by also adding same-sex domestic partner benefits.
American Airlines was also the First Fortune 100 organization that established a complete LBGTQ marketing and communication team and also named it The Rainbow teAAm, the staff members from this department take care of expert travel care of needs of the others in the community.
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‘Fly Forward Print Campaign’
The Airline’s 2008 print ad campaign included an image of two men walking off an airplane to take a vacation to a place like Hawaii. This print ad was run in famous newspapers and magazines and displayed outright support to the LGBTQ community.
Later on, they launched a similar campaign that showed two women in a similar scenario to further show their favor for the LGBTQ community comprising the staff members, guests, passengers, and audience. This ad campaign went ahead to win the Best Print Advertisement award by the IGLTA in the year 2009.
Outdoor advertising
Going ahead in their support journey in 2010, the major airline company chose to run display ads on subways, bus stops, and traffic signals showing two men enjoying a beach and the slogan involved the men talking about supporting those who support their community.
These were everywhere in New York City and the ad did receive backlash from anti-gay communities and organizations, but that was short-lived and their accreditation and support for making the ad were enough to further negate these episodes of harsh responses.
To keep their momentum up and make it an equal workplace, the airlines also laid focus on increasing their support and marketing for other minority groups.
Social media campaigns in 2015
The Airlines took the big plunge and even changed their logo to sport the LGBTQ community flag in 2015. Their social media accounts were proudly supporting the PRIDE month and even went ahead to announce special pride programming for their in-flight entertainment.
These included songs, albums, playlists, and concerts performed by LGBTQ artists from across the world. This bold move sure caught the attention of many and has rather created a benchmark for companies to show full support to communities that long for equality and justice in the eyes of others.
Colleges and institutions step in to show support
The top LGBT-friendly universities UK have come forward to show their extended support for the LGBTQ community by introducing policies that express a feeling of equality and fairness for all their students.
The idea is to create a supportive, engaging and welcome environment for the LGBTQ community students and to eliminate any possibility of tough situations for them.
Conclusion
The world stands in complete support of the LBGTQ community and all that we talked about proves that a lot has advanced in years and changed for the better. Adding to that, there is hope for a brighter future as more brands, institutions, support groups, and individuals are coming in to show their support. We see many talk shows, marketing campaigns, and conversations supporting the community.
Author’s Bio:
Robert Griffith is an independent journalist and covers stories for a couple of big news sites and also writes articles and op-eds. He’s also into academic writing and helps students do their thesis and dissertation work successfully. In his free time, he meditates, watches movies and reads business magazines.