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Ditch the Corporate Rainbow Washing and Check Out Art From These Queer People of Color Instead

The Pin Prick's Progress Pride Shoe Locks; pink suede shoes with a progress pride enamel shoelaces lock on the laces.

Another year, another Pride month full of corporations pretending they care about us by painting random things in rainbow colors and trying to convince us to buy them. We always knew rainbow capitalism didn’t mean any of these businesses were actually our friends, but this year, the increasingly hostile attitude towards our community has had them hesitate before throwing our colors on their social media profile pics and pulling Pride collections from the shelves, which has really driven that home.

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The thing is, you don’t need rainbow capitalism in order to deck yourself out with rainbows and queer art and pride gear, because there’s plenty of queer artists out there DIYing it and trying to scrape together a living in this, our queerphobic capitalist hellscape of a society. Let’s take Pride-wear back to its roots and start shopping from and supporting actual queer creators this year, and to help you get started, here’s a list of queer artists of color you can buy a wide range of art and merch from.

Pins and Jewellery

Rose Gold

The Black woman-owned Rose Gold sells everything Pride themed you can imagine, from trans flag shoes to stickers to really cool t-shirts. I’ve decided to stick them in the jewelry section, however, because they have such a wide range of styles available, from polymer clay earrings to enamel rings, and they’re all really pretty.

Rose Gold Beaded Rainbow Charm Bracelet; a pink beaded bracelet with some silver beads and an enamel rainbow charm.
(Rose Gold Co.)

Issuaq

Run by Levi Mequ, a non-binary Greenland Inuk artist who creates incredible beadwork, Issuaq sells handmade earrings, pins, and necklaces, in a wide range of different pride flags. There’s even a set in Gilbert Baker’s original Pride flag colors, which you don’t see that often and which I have a soft spot for.

anim0shbeads

Owned by talented Algonquin & Métis beadworker Cai, anim0shbeads is open for commissions. They’ve previously made some fabulous beaded Pride pins, so if you’re looking for something like that you should maybe send them a message.

A beaded lesbian flag heart on a background of leaves, created by anim0shbeads
(anim0shbeads, Etsy)

The Pin Prick

With items featured in the hit Netflix series Sex Education, U.K.-based The Pin Prick offers a wide range of “subtle minimalist” pride accessories created by Jarrell Goh. While primarily focused on enamel pins, available in a huge range of queer Pride designs as well as a handful of other themes, The Pin Prick also stocks other accessories including rainbow braces, shoelaces, and cufflinks.

The Pin Prick's Progress Pride Shoe Locks; pink suede shoes with a progress pride enamel shoelaces lock on the laces.
(The Pin Prick)

Heckin’ Unicorn

Singapore-based Heckin’ Unicorn sells cute and quirky enamel pins and earrings, as well as some extras like backpacks, socks, and stationary. With designs ranging from delightful Pride puns like pancakes and bicycle to cute animals and mythical creatures paired with different Pride flags, as well as a variety of pronoun pins, there’s something for everyone.

In addition to selling their designs, Heckin’ Unicorn also focuses on advocacy, stating on their website, “We highlight and criticise LGBTQ+ discrimination in Singapore, organise LGBTQ+ and trans-awareness exhibitions, and donate to queer support organisations,” so buying from them helps to support that.

Heckin' Unicorn She/They enamel pin badge: She is on the line above they, the letters are in rainbow colours.
(Heckin’ Unicorn)

Black Queer Magic

Another Black woman-owned business, Black Queer Magic belongs to jeweler and social worker Vee B. Miller. Filled with her beautiful, complex designs, some of which have magical elements, as well as a collection of custom collars, it’s her upcoming Queer AF collection that made me include Black Queer Magic on this list. Designed to encompass various “gender feels/moods/experiences,” featuring metal stamping and available in numerous formats from tie pins to rings, it looks like a great way to assert your selfhood. Plus, she also takes custom orders.

A Black woman holds out her hand, on it is a silver wrap around ring with the word "femme" stamped on it.

Clothes and home goods

Bianca Designs

Bianca Negrón is a genderfluid, Latine designer whose work references various modern art styles, including Bauhaus, and has a fun, geometric yet organic, often cartoony style. In addition to their screen printed and embroidered Pride shirts with really unique designs, they also sell pins, stickers, mugs, and other items, so definitely check those out, too.

A black t-shirt with the text queerie & eerie in white. Between the two words are two skulls breathing rainbow fire at each other which meets in the middle.
(Bianca Designs)

Show & Tell

It was really hard to decide which category Black-owned Show & Tell belonged in because they also sell basically everything, and their Pride collection includes makeup, art, candles, and even coffee. However, I eventually settled on clothes and home goods because they have some great, classic rainbow clothes, including a headwrap and full lounge suit.

A rainbow tie-dyed tank top being modelled by a Black woman.
(Show & Tell)

Stuzo Clothing

The Black and Latino-owned Stuzo Clothing has a wide range of Pride themed t-shirts and other clothes. If you like your Pride gear to have fewer rainbows but still be openly and unapologetically queer, Stuzo Clothing is a great choice.

A Black woman with locs in a high ponytail wears a blank sleeveless shirt with "yup, still gay" written on it in thick white letters.
(Stuzo Clothing)

Demian Dineyazhi

Oregan based, Indigenous-owned Demian Dineyazhi exclusively stocks Indigenous art and small press publications, including a brilliant Pride range. It features t-shirts and hats celebrating Indigenous understandings of gender and queer resistance, as well as stickers, mugs, and other accessories.

A black t-shirt with the text "Betray colonial gender systems" on it in pinkish red.
(DemianDineyazh, Etsy)

Soft Punk

Another store that sells a range of different items, Soft Punk has also made it into the clothes and home goods category because their Pride clothes are just so beautiful (though frankly their stained glass sun catcher deserves its own special entry too).

Soft Punk Bisexual Siblings and Lovers Unisex Tank. A black tank top with blue, punk and purple flowers and broken chains surrounding the text "bisexual siblings and lovers do not despair you will never be alone! We walk this world together and break our own chains"
(Soft Punk)

Stickers

Bunny Angel Art

Owned by Cherii, a trans South Asian artist, Bunny Angel Art sells pins and stationary as well as really adorable pride stickers. If you like your pride gear cute, with cartoon animals in various pride flag colors, then Bunny Angel Art has you covered.

A sticker featuring a pink cartoon line drawing of a rabbit's face with rainbow angel wings an a pink bow tie.
(Bunny Angel Art)

Annie Elainey

Disabled latinx YouTuber Annie Elainey (she/they) also has a merch store where they stock clothes, mugs, and other items with queer, disabled, latinx pride art and slogans on them. I’ve decided to put them into the sticker section because their it’s their stickers that really stand out to me.

A sticker on a silver laptop featuring a black and white drawing of a femme presenting wheelchair user over a rainbow background.
(AnnieElainey)

Home Decor

The art of Felix Deon

Felix Deon is a Mexican artist who produces the most beautiful, intimate, and touching queer watercolours. Drawing on a range of influences from vintage illustrations to Loteria and Tarot cards, and various traditional Mexican art forms, Deon’s work includes incredible queer erotica as well as powerful celebrations of queerness in all its forms.

El Baile de los 41, a watercolour painting by Felix Deon: Two bearded drag queens in beautiful historic ballgowns in a grad ballroom.
(TheArtOfFelixDeon, Etsy)

Art by Rose Bousamra

Arab American artist Rose Bousamra creates beautiful prints and enamel pins with dreamlike imagery and soft, saturated colors. Not all of her work is explicitly queer, but it all has a queer vibe, and the pieces that are have a lovely, transcendent feeling to them.

Homecoming by Rose Bousamra, a print of one witch returning home to her wife's house in the dark. The print is set on a shelf with a vase of flowers, a candle and a blue lantern.
(ArtbyRoseBousamra, Etsy)

(featured image: The Progress Rainbow Flag Shoelace Locks, The Pin Prick)

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Author
Siobhan Ball
Siobhan Ball (she/her) is a contributing writer covering news, queer stuff, politics and Star Wars. A former historian and archivist, she made her first forays into journalism by writing a number of queer history articles c. 2016 and things spiralled from there. When she's not working she's still writing, with several novels and a book on Irish myth on the go, as well as developing her skills as a jeweller.

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