Proudly supporting the LGBT+ community

Why does Pride matter to us? It’s a time that allows us all, whatever our identity, to play our part in helping to raise awareness of equal opportunity and a time for us to celebrate and be visible as a community. Our aim is to be a truly inclusive retailer, and that’s why we’re proud to support the LGBT+ community.

What is Pride?

Pride occurs in June. It's a month dedicated to celebrating the LGBT+ community with parades and marches around the world. June was chosen because it was the month of the Stonewall riots. This landmark event helped fight homophobia and campaign for equal rights. Pride is all about celebrating the progress that has been made in the fight towards equality.

What Pride means to us

Our aim

Here at Habitat, we want to ensure that all our colleagues feel safe and supported at work. We also want our customers to feel welcome when they shop with us. Here is one of our previous window displays showing our support for Pride with a burst of rainbow colours.

Pride for our colleagues

A group of Habitat colleagues holding balloons and flags to show their support for Pride.

Supporting colleagues

Over the past three years, we’ve made significant in-roads on our journey in LGBT+ inclusion. Our aim is to be a truly inclusive retailer and in order for us to deliver that, we recognise the importance of supporting our LGBT+ colleagues and customers, to make Sainsbury’s a place where everyone loves to work and shop.

We continue to support akt, a charity that supports homeless LGBT+ young people, and this year we’re also supporting Sparkle, a national transgender charity, and are the headline sponsor at the Sparkle Weekend.

The last 50 years has witnessed a huge change in attitudes towards the LGBT+ community, but we know there is always more to be done. We are committed to creating a culture that promotes and takes pride in diversity. Our progress in the LGBT+ inclusion sphere over the past two years has seen us enhance our LBGT+ policies for colleagues and introduce a dedicated policy to support our trans colleagues. We’ve rolled this out further by platforming and profiling our LGBT+ leaders to show our colleagues and customers that everybody is welcome at Sainsbury’s.

Our charity partners

We continue to support akt, a charity that supports homeless LGBT+ young people. This year we’re also supporting Sparkle, a national transgender charity, and are the headline sponsor at the Sparkle Weekend.

A person walking in a parade wearing a pink and blue transgender pride flag.

Akt

Coming out, or being outed as LGBTQ+, can sadly lead to young people being made homeless – even in 2022. Around 24% of young people experiencing homelessness in the UK are LGBTQ+, which is significantly disproportionate. Once homeless, LGBTQ+ young people are more likely to face violence and discrimination than young people who aren’t LGBTQ+.
akt is the national LGBTQ+ youth homelessness charity supporting young people aged 16-25 in the UK who are experiencing homelessness or living in a hostile environment. They support young people into safe homes and employment, education, or training, in a welcoming and open environment that celebrates LGBTQ+ identities.

2 people with brightly coloured hair and tattoos smile at the camera.

Sparkle

Sparkle – The National Transgender Charity delivers the Sparkle Weekend celebration of gender diversity each year. One of the charity’s core values is that the event remains free to attend for all trans, non-binary and intersex people, and their allies, regardless of age, background, and ability. Sparkle also offers advice, training, and support, and continues to promote awareness and understanding of gender identity and expression across the UK and beyond.

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Marching toward our goal

We continue to make progress on our journey in LGBT+ inclusion. Our aim is to be a truly inclusive retailer and for us to deliver that, we recognise the importance of supporting our LGBT+ colleagues and customers, to make Sainsbury’s a place where everyone loves to work and shop.

This year with our colleagues we’re talking about the fact that ‘It’s not done’, prompting us to think about the many challenges the LGBT+ community still face in 2023.

Things we may not even think about, like deciding where its safe and legal to go on holiday, if we can hold our partner’s hand in public or whether it’s safe to come out ‘again’ every time we meet new people or are in new situations.

We can all make a difference in driving change and creating an environment where everyone feels welcomed, supported, and celebrated. Our colleagues will share their personal ‘it’s not done’ stories with each other across the month, asking allies to listen, learn and show support.

A wall covered in multicoloured paint splashes with the words we belong.

You can also expect to see Sainsbury’s colleagues at 35 Pride Events across the country where members of the LGBT+ community and their allies come together to celebrate love and friendship, to show how far LGBTQ+ rights have come, and how in some places there's still work to be done.

To help our customers celebrate, we have a great GM and Tu Clothing range for Pride, including a new collection with designer Henry Holland. We are pleased to share that we’ll also be donating £50,000 from the sale of our GM and Tu Clothing Pride ranges to two great charities – Sparkle, who support the transgender community, and AKT, who support LGBT+ homelessness. This alongside being the headline sponsor for Sparkle Weekend which is the is the world’s largest free-to-attend celebration of gender diversity, happening in Manchester on July 7 to 9.

What does Pride mean to me?

Lauren Hackett

What does Pride mean to me?

At Proud@Sainsburys we want to ensure that the LGBT agenda is at the forefront of what we do all year round but for me LGBT History Month is one of the most important months in the calendar year as we are able to really focus on the issues LGBT individuals have faced in the past to get equal rights and highlights that there is so much still to be done. Every year at Sainsburys we make HM bigger and better around activities and content and it is always great when you see so many people across the business at all levels supporting the agenda and really getting involved to ensure everyone knows how important it really is and embraces all our colleagues diversity. Over the last couple of years we have seen more and more colleagues across the business coming out to their peers and families and embracing who they finally.

Jemma Kameen

What does Pride mean to me?

Pride is my safe place, the one day of the year that I feel safe to hold my wife’s hand in public. Pride is magical. Seeing colleagues, friends and family altogether supporting something that you believe in so strongly, knowing that just being there could help others to feel strong enough to be themselves too.