7 LGBTQ-Owned Brands Making Travel Gear We Love – Condé Nast Traveler

Every Pride Month, companies around the world, from commercial airlines to fashion labels, broadcast their support for the LGBTQ+ community, promoting rainbow-emblazoned capsule collections and sponsored parade floats, or, at the very least, rainbow-ifying their social media. Indeed, some brands are authentic supporters of queer causes, backing up their Pride rhetoric by ensuring safe workplaces for LGBTQ+ employees, or crafting thoughtful ad campaigns that reflect the diversity of their consumer base. Others tend to be less altruistic. Ever heard of the term rainbow-washing? Also known as pink-washing, the unsavory phrase is used to characterize brands that claim solidarity with queer causes in order to attract “pink money” from the high-spending LGBTQ+ demographic. But if there’s a savvy set of consumers out there who can suss out the fakers from the pack, it’s the LGTBQ+ community.

For those who self-identify as queer—and straight allies, too—Pride Month is more than celebratory parades and multicolored wear-once-a-year merch. It’s a commemoration of history’s queer trailblazers, particularly those who participated in the uprising at The Stonewall Inn, who continue to fight for the right to be oneself out in the open. One of the best ways to support the LGBTQ+ community during Pride Month (and every other month of the year) is by supporting businesses owned by LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs. Here are seven brands celebrated for their inclusive ethos and the unique products, from durable duffel bags to genderless plane-appropriate apparel, that you’ll want to bring on your travels.