Showing up for the LGBTQ+ community during Pride Month is great. Showing up year-round is even better — after all, queer and trans folks make up a substantial and vital portion of the cannabis community. If anything, solidarity with and advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community is a year-round must for any cannabis business worth its weight in salt (or weed), as is inclusivity in your marketing.
At the same time, you might be wondering how to advocate without coming off as inauthentic. We’re here to make it simple for you. Just follow our month-by-month roadmap of attainable, impactful steps for incorporating LGBTQ+ advocacy into your company ethos and actions all-year round, every year.
January: Reflect on last year and identify one area for growth.
As the holiday season thaws out (okay, there’s probably still snow on the ground near you), lots of folks are gradually getting back to work. Use this slightly slower time of year to look back at your previous year of advocacy instead of rushing into doing more.
Ask yourself: Among the ways in which you showed up for the LGBTQ+ community last year, which ones felt authentic to both your brand and to queer and trans folks? Which ones didn’t? Then, based on these answers, ask yourself another question: What could you do better this year?
Your answer to this last question will pinpoint an area in which your business can grow its advocacy efforts. Set this improvement as a goal for your year-round advocacy. And for accountability purposes, keep tabs on your improvement within your existing infrastructure, like in your project management software.
February: Celebrate Black LGBTQ+ excellence.
The queer and trans rights movement is inextricable from Black visionary thinking. The impact of Marsha P. Johnson alone on the still-ongoing fight for liberation is evidence enough! So, during Black History Month, take plenty of time to read, watch, and listen to the works of Black LGBTQ+ artists, activists, and storytellers. Better yet, carve out time for you and your company’s staff to engage with these works together and discuss them afterward.
Start with Marsha P. Johnson scholar Tourmaline, an esteemed Black trans artist and archivist whose short film “The Personal Things” is available online. For a purely audio medium, the Vibe Check podcast from journalists Zach Stafford and Saeed Jones (who’s also a poet) offers a Black queer lens on today’s and yesterday’s politics and pop culture. And for deep reading, the work of the late and legendary James Baldwin, from his novels to his essays, feels as relevant to present-day social challenges as when he wrote them over 40 years ago.
March: Build your allyship toolkit.
It’s one thing to dedicate yourself to year-round queer and trans advocacy. It’s another thing entirely to actually learn how to do it from the experts and then act on your new knowledge. That’s why, during March, you should make a plan on the best ways to fold allyship into your business’s operations from top to bottom.
This can be as simple as using inclusive language or allowing (and encouraging!) staff to wear pronoun pins. It can be as complicated and important as pushing back against discriminatory behavior in the workplace. Think of these opportunities as forming your allyship toolkit: Only with knowledge (tools) of how to be inclusive can you build a space that’s truly supportive.
Start filling your toolkit with the Diversity Movement’s online, self-guided, hour-long Inclusive Language course, which is available year-round. Look for webinars on how to stand up against discriminatory behavior — you may find something like Joh Sarre’s free two-hour workshop. Signing up and showing up for these courses grows your toolkit, as does adding new courses every March.
April: Dive into LGBTQ+ arts and culture.
Immersing yourself in the LGBTQ+ community’s artistic expression will stir your emotions and help you empathize with the depth and diversity of queer and trans experiences. This greater empathy will make you a stronger, fiercer advocate.
The best part is that queer and trans art events are super fun and engaging! Think local drag shows and queer poetry open mics or film screenings. To take the work out of finding these events, follow a local queer cannabis social media account to stay informed about upcoming happenings in your area. For the Boston area, Queer in Cannabis is a great example and Proud Mary Network in NYC.
May: Donate to, or volunteer with, LGBTQ+ mental health organizations.
Every May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and queer and trans people often struggle with mental health due to pervasive stigma, discrimination, and targeted legislative campaigns. (This is among the reasons why cannabis consumption is higher in our community than among straight and/or cisgender people.) May is thus your time to join forces with LGBTQ+ mental health and crisis intervention nonprofits.
The Trevor Project, perhaps the foremost crisis intervention nonprofit for queer and trans youth, is always looking for remote volunteers. If you’d struggle to free up the time or emotional capacity for this work, donations are welcome too. Or, you can donate to or volunteer with local LGBTQ+ mental health nonprofits in your area, such as queer- and trans-focused youth centers and QTBIPOC-led wellness organizations. Local and nationwide organizations alike always need support, and May is your time to provide it.
June: Take community action to celebrate Pride Month.
During Pride Month proper, keep up the standard you’ve set all year and continue to support grassroots LGBTQ+ organizations. Further show up for the community by marching in a local Pride parade or simply going to or sponsoring your local Pride. Walking around and experiencing the goings-on is a great way to witness queer and trans joy and pride and feel emotionally invested in preserving our rights and inclusion. You can even put your money where your mouth is and sponsor local Pride events, a welcome support measure in today’s anti-DEI climate.
In June, you should also use your social media feeds and written content to educate folks on cannabis’s rich LGBTQ+ history and tie your advocacy to your industry. You might know about Dennis Peron and “Brownie Mary,” but that doesn’t mean your customers will. Heck, they might not even know about present-day queer and trans cannabis activists, even though Sasha Colby and FLAMER have become peas in a pod. Looking for ideas on which cannabis figures to spotlight? Check out NORML’s guide to LGBTQ+ cannabis trailblazers.
July: Go nationwide in your support.
You can do this without getting on a plane to another state, promise! To keep your advocacy going after Pride Month, look at Erin in the Morning’s map of which U.S. states are and aren’t safe for trans adults and youth. Ask yourself: What can you do to support communities in these states?
This support is especially important to prioritize if your cannabis business serves customers or clients in one of the states on the list. Consider making donations to LGBTQ+ organizations in these states, such as Equality Texas, which has remained unwavering in its fight for trans equality in one of the most anti-trans states.
August: Learn more about marginalized queer histories.
When you explored Black LGBTQ+ history back in February, you were getting to know only one portion of the queer community. Although Black queer and trans folks are among the most marginalized LGBTQ+ subgroups, the community as a whole is marginalized. That’s why learning about marginalized queer histories in August will empower you to show up as a more knowledgeable and dedicated ally.
Start with the archives of the “History is Gay” podcast, through which you’ll learn about queer and trans folks whose historical contributions have been largely forgotten to time. Dive deeper with the revered late trans activist and author Leslie Feinberg’s Transgender Warriors, a history of people crossing gender and sexuality lines over the eons. Start a book club (or podcast club) with company staff, or even with clients or customers, to encourage discussion and stronger allyship in the community.
September: Review your policies for full inclusion.
With all the knowledge and empathy you’ve built up so far this year, it’s time to look inward. Where within your company can you change your policies and operations to more clearly include queer and trans folks? What is practical to implement, and what didn’t go as planned? Feel free to get creative, but remain authentic and aligned with everything you’ve learned.
For example, if you don’t have a dress code, write one simply stating that your team can dress in any workplace-appropriate way that affirms their gender. Rewrite your parental leave policies so that they’re not “mom and dad,” they’re simply “parent,” “parents,” or “caretaker/caretakers,” and give all genders an equal amount of parental leave. Use the Society for Human Resource Management’s guide to LGBTQ+ workplace protections to inform your September allyship.
October: Buy and read banned books.
In recent years, there’s been a massive uptick in bans on books spotlighting LGBTQ+ themes or characters, especially in schools but sometimes also at public libraries. These bans result in far less positive representations (or any representation at all) of queer and trans people in media. That limits the possibility that people of all ages, and especially youth, can explore their identity and truly get to know themselves.
It also affects queer and trans authors’ bottom line, and on that front, you can certainly help. In October, buy and read banned books by LGBTQ+ authors. Make sure to buy them from locally-owned, independent bookstores (especially queer-owned ones) so that your spending is as economically beneficial as possible. With these books in your hands, you also have the opportunity to bypass bans and educate people about them via your social media or website content. Doing so will help queer and trans folks see themselves in the world.
November: Get politically active.
Even outside years with a presidential election, November is of the utmost political importance since it’s also when local and state elections occur. Before you head to the polls, look up which candidates on the ballot support LGBTQ+ rights. Prioritizing these candidates is among the most important ways to carry your workplace advocacy over to your personal life.
Identifying these candidates may sound like a lot of research, but the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund’s searchable database of candidates makes it easy. And you really can’t call yourself an advocate if you don’t go out and vote for people who will protect us.
December: Lean into Giving Season.
December is peak holiday season, and queer and trans people might not have families with which to spend time. Roughly two in every five unhoused people is LGBTQ+, and LGBTQ+ youth are 120% more likely to be homeless than other youth. Financially supporting these groups during peak Giving Season is a simple way to continue your advocacy as the year closes out.
Your donations to LGBTQ+ mutual aid funds or shelters that provide temporary housing for queer and trans folks will make all the difference amid the holiday season. If you can’t find any such organizations in your area, giving money to an LGBTQ+ legal advocacy organization like Lambda Legal is a great alternative. Consider offering donation matching to encourage your team to make donations as well, thereby maximizing your company’s impact.
There’s always more to do for queer and trans allyship!
This month-by-month roadmap for your cannabis business’s ongoing LGBTQ+ advocacy represents just one set of possibilities — there are plenty of others. However you go about your advocacy, remember why you’re doing it: Cannabis and queer history are deeply intertwined. And whenever you need accountability, just revisit this roadmap. The queer and trans cannabis community will always be here and ready for your support.