It’s not an exaggeration when I say that I could probably count on one hand the amount of times I have seen an LGBTQ person or family feature in a brand campaign. I’m not talking about your big adverts like Gillete or IKEA (although they’re still very welcome!) or famous LGBTQ celebrities, I’m talking about families like mine – people like me – in local campaigns. LGBTQ Blogs.
We’re simply too divisive or not as “popular” because we’re a bit niche. But the thing is, it’s because we’re a bit niche that we’re actually incredibly valuable. We’re a peek into what society really looks like today and we’re your way into making yourself more diverse and inclusive.
With this in mind, over the past few years, I’ve spent a lot of time increasing the visibility of families like mine and, in general, people like me. Online and in the media. I’ve challenged brands that aren’t up to scratch – both publicly and via email – and I’ve had really productive conversations with those in control of connecting influencers and bloggers with brands, asking why members of the LGBTQ community aren’t being put forward or represented.
No More Excuses
A lot of the time it balls down to stats (which I’ll leave for another time to discuss) or what image or style the brand is looking for, which is fair enough, but occasionally I’ve received responses saying that the brand “couldn’t find any anyone” that met the diversity bracket so they went ahead with their straight, white, middle class group of people instead (I may be paraphrasing). One of the worst responses I received was “we’re featuring diversity soon” as if LGBTQ Blogs are a separate entity or season!
Understandably, this infuriated me as families like mine are no longer a rare species and we deserve to be included amongst everyone else – not separately. It is actually incredibly easy to find LGBTQ families these days, just look up hashtags like #LGBTFamilies, #TwoMums, #TwoDads, #SameSexFamilies, and you will find a stream of beautiful families. Not only that, places like Same Sex Parents and Gays With Kids over on instagram share daily photos of LGBTQ families from across the globe. We’re everywhere, but looking at today’s media you really wouldn’t think it, and then you come to blogging and the ‘Influencer’ market and it’s even worse.
If you were to search ‘Top UK Bloggers’ on Google, I would bet my last pound coin that the list would be predominantly straight and white – actually, I know it is – without even having to search ‘White’ and ‘Straight’, because that’s just the way it is. To find a family like mine you still have to be very specific in your Google search terms. Take a visit to a popular blogging chart instead and, again, there is so little diversity in the top 10 that I wonder why I bother sticking around on their mailing lists. It’s almost criminal that families like mine are not represented in ‘Parenting’ categories (outside of Pride month, that is) let alone ‘Travel’ and ‘Photography’. It just feels like we’re hidden until we’re popular or current, but then no one wants to be accused of tokenism so we’re quite often hidden until Pride Month is WELL underway so it doesn’t look like tokenism. Hilarious isn’t it? For us, not really.
In a world where we’re making great strides forward – and this time I am thinking of the Gilettes of the world – we still have so far to go before LGBTQ families are found in the ‘Parenting’ category and not part of a specialist category.
Inspired by Circus Mum – who wrote their list of UK Black Bloggers – and in an effort to raise our profile; quashing the excuses of “we couldn’t find any LGBTQ Blogs”, I’ve collected the ultimate list of LGBTQ blogs and influencers out there right now, doing wonderful things – from stunning photography to incredible food.
Now there’s no excuse.
Parenting & Family
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
Fashion, Lifestyle & culture
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
Food
View this post on Instagram
Travel
View this post on Instagram
Photography
Ms_Emsworth (Nature)
Interiors, DIY & craft
View this post on Instagram
This list is far from finished – I hope to add to it as time goes on.
If you have any suggestions, pop us an email or comment below!
Banner Photo by ROBIN WORRALL on Unsplash
This makes me so bloody happy. So much queer creativity ready to burst forth into the world! You’re crusaders of the modern age and I adore you!
Love love love this. Thank you for including us 🙂
Such an awesome resource! I’m flabbergasted by the amount of blogs on here I hadn’t come across yet. I think I only follow about 6 of them. That’ll soon be rectified, you’ve provided something that will truly help so many people and hopefully take away the excuse I hear too often from brands and PRs that they simply can’t find diverse / minority bloggers to reach out to. They need to bookmark this pronto
Even though I’m straight, white and working class I follow lots of these. I chose them because I like their posts, now I’ve got lots more to have a look at. Great list.
Great list. More for me to follow and a great resource. Hopefully something people will use. I’m like you. I want to see us represented.