8 LGBTQ-Owned Businesses To Support
Looking for a business to support during Pride Month? Here at GOBankingRates we rounded up eight LGBTQ+ owned businesses with incredible startup stories and missions they strive to live out each and every day.
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From self-care to fragrance to insurance, celebrate and support these LGBTQ+ owned businesses during Pride Month and every day of the year.
Sand Spa
Leadership: Megan Richardson-Tiernan and Gretchen Tiernan, newlyweds and co-founders of Sand Spa.
About Sand Spa: Sand Spa is a thriving business defined as a self-care brand with various day spas and nail boutiques. Founded in 2013 in Manhattan Beach, California, Sand Spa has since grown to over four locations across Southern California and has partnered with various hotel spas in the region. Sand Spa was created with the belief that spa days shouldn’t only be saved for special occasions but instead should, and can, be incorporated into your ongoing self-care and/or wellness routines.
Sand Spa offers premium services such as massages, nail care, skin care and more. When creating Sand Spa, our goal was to take out the fluff and focus on high quality services at affordable prices. By modernizing the spa experience, Sand Spa aims to help people take more time for self-care by having it delivered to them in a more convenient manner.
Why supporting Sand Spa matters: Sand Spa strives to create a culture that is welcoming and accepting of people from all walks of life. As co-founders and owners of Sand Spa, we love having diversity in our locations, and take everyone for who they are as people and how they do their job no matter their race, gender or sexual identity. As members of the LGBTQIA+ community, it has always been important to us to embrace who people are as individuals and to show up as their authentic self in every situation – because we also want others to be able to show up and feel comfortable enough to be their authentic self, and embrace who they are.
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Insure Equality
Leadership: Elisa Stampf, CEO and co-founder of Insure Equality.
About Insure Equality: Our mission at Insure Equality is to uplift the voices in the insurance industry that are typically excluded or minimized. For many of us that used to work in insurance, being visible wasn’t always an option.
Why supporting Insure Equality matters: We do everything in three buckets: accountability, community and transparency. Our tech product (releasing this month) allows employees in the industry to weigh in on how their culture feels, our resource page gives companies and individuals pathways to level up, be more inclusive, and heal from workplace trauma and our pledge asks companies in the industry to step up and declare that people matter more than profits.
We are a 501(c)3, and our entire executive team is queer. We care deeply about being welcomed into an industry that is ripe with opportunity, but a little low on love.
Xyrena
Leadership: Killian Wells, head perfumer and CEO of Xyrena.
About Xyrena: Xyrena is an award-winning LGBTQUIA+ owned fragrance house based in Austin, Texas. We’re best known for our hyperrealistic scent recreations of some very specific places and things – such as Dark Ride which captures the smell of water rides like Pirates of the Caribbean, Jurassic Park, and Splash Mountain.
Why supporting Xyrena matters: All of our fragrances come packaged in retro VHS-style cases with ’80s movie poster-inspired illustrations. The fragrance industry has been stagnant for many years so supporting our brand allows us to keep innovating and expanding our library of “time capsule scents” that can be cherished for many years to come.
Pals
Leadership: Hannah Lavon, founder of Pals.
About Pals: Ethically produced and woman- and LGBTQ-owned, Pals are not only the most fun, comfy funky socks for kids ever created, they also exist to create positive social change and make our world friendlier! Pals Socks are perfect mismatches that come paired as two unique, colorful characters that are friends despite their differences.
Why supporting Pals matters: Not only are these socks undeniably cute, Pals have a dual purpose. Pals are a celebration, visual proof that it is so fun to have a bestie not exactly like you. That we can still go perfectly together! Pals is creating a friendlier world and it’s a mission that is very important to Lavon.
The Bubble Collection
Leadership: Gregory Cole Michael Perris, founders of The Bubble Collection.
About The Bubble Collection: Launched in December 2021, The Bubble Collection is an LGBT business enterprise certified by the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. We are an independently-owned fragrance startup founded by two gay men, Gregory Cole and Michael Perris. We’ve been working in the field of branding and content production since the late 1990s with our agency called ON TREND FILMS. We first gained notice in the world of fragrance when we came up with the creative concept for Romance by Ralph Lauren. After that, we consulted on such hits as Marc Jacobs Perfume, Michael Kors Fragrances and Tom Ford Black Orchid. Eventually we decided to launch our own fragrance brand. Thus, we bring you The Bubble Collection — a fine fragrance collection of six unisex EDTs.
The Bubble Collection is about living in a bubble, breaking out of a bubble or connecting to other people’s bubbles. Our six scents are broken down into two categories: Wander and Harmony. The Wander fragrances — Marrakech, Santorini and Reykjavik — will take you on a fragrance journey around the world, where you can wander and explore new places. The Harmony fragrances — Connect, Chill and Celebrate — are about finding harmony with yourself, your friends, and your community, both local and global.
From the start, it was important that all of our scents be unisex. The purpose of fragrance is self-expression, not to be confined to the marketing trends of the past. We recognize that your style can be fluid and flexible, so what better way than to choose one of our scents to accompany your mood. We at The Bubble Collection say it’s time to #breakoutofyourbubble and encourage people to get out of their comfort zone and be experimental and brave.
Why supporting The Bubble Collection matters: It is important to support The Bubble Collection because we are an independent, LGBT-owned brand. Over 7,000 new fragrances are launched each year, and without the backing of a corporate giant, The Bubble Collection has to punch far above its weight to get noticed. And as an LGBT-owned business, The Bubble Collection stands for inclusivity and wants to inspire LGBTQIA+ youth to pursue their dreams, whatever they may be.
The Bubble Collection fragrances are small-batch, handcrafted and made in the USA. And besides being unisex, they are vegan, non-toxic and certified cruelty-free. Because after all, planet Earth is our bubble too!
SW3AT Wellness
Leadership: Alyza Brevard-Rodriguez, owner of SW3AT Wellness.
About SW3AT Wellness: SW3AT is a wellness studio that specializes in holistic health offerings such as infrared heat and salt therapy. We are LGBTQ, Black, Latina and disabled veteran owned. We currently have two locations, one in Jersey City and the other in Hoboken but we have also recently franchised the business. Our brand and its offerings have become so popular that we decided to expand via franchising and allow others potential entrepreneurs to bring our concept to their area. All sessions at SW3AT are in private suites with a host of amenities. Additional offerings include infrared sauna blankets that we manufacture and sell along with an entire line of athleisure sold in store and online.
Why supporting SW3AT Wellness matters: Our success is not only attributed to the unique services we offer but also the environment we have thoughtfully created. Our vision is to continue our commitment to inclusivity, positivity and wellness for all. SW3AT strives to be a direct representation of the community and an advocate for all things holistic health and wellness.
Total Engagement Consulting by Kimer
Leadership: Stan C. Kimer, president of Total Engagement Consulting by Kimer.
About Total Engagement Consulting by Kimer: Total Engagement Consulting by Kimer is a consultancy formed in 2010 after my 31-year career at IBM. My practice focuses on the two areas I enjoyed the most during my time at IBM: diversity and career development.
We offer a wide range of diversity consulting and training services with a deep expertise in LGBTQ diversity, supporting transgender and nonbinary employees, overall diversity strategic planning, launching and leverage employee resource groups, forming and training diversity councils, unconscious bias and inclusive recruiting. We provide training and talks in these areas ranging from one hour to multi-day, along with consulting services.
Why supporting Total Engagement Consulting by Kimer matters: It matters to support my business since diversity, equity and inclusion is becoming increasingly important for any organization to succeed, and the LGBTQ+ component is becoming increasingly more visible and widespread. Now over 20% of Gen Z adults identify as part of the LGBTQ community! All diversity needs to be a high focus, and it needs to include LGBTQ diversity as a core highlighted element.
Mason Dixie Foods
Leadership: Ross Perkins, co-owner and COO, Mason Dixie Foods.
About Mason Dixie Foods: Mason Dixie Foods is a woman-owned, LGBTQ+ owned business based in Baltimore, Maryland, with a mission to bring better-for-you frozen foods to all. We create ready-to-eat frozen breakfast sandwiches, frozen biscuits, and frozen scones for more than 8,000 grocery stores nationwide and in select brands of Marriott hotels.
Why supporting Mason Dixie Foods matters: It’s important for consumers to support Mason Dixie Foods because we believe everyone deserves real food with real ingredients no matter where they live, who they are or how they identify. As an LGBTQ+-owned business and a business owned by a woman POC, Mason Dixie Foods knows that everyone – and we do mean everyone – deserves better frozen food options than what our competition is making.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 8 LGBTQ-Owned Businesses To Support
