The idea of chosen family is a sacred and beautiful element of the LGBTQ community, especially for queer and trans youth. Many LGBTQ youth cite conflict connected to their identities within their homes as a source of housing instability. Additionally, some queer and trans youth may lack an identity affirming space altogether.
Therefore, having people in your life who see you for who you are, love you for who you are, and build community beside you means everything. Converse is acknowledging this by using chosen or found family as a vehicle behind their seventh annual Pride campaign during June.
Over 50 different LGBTQ creatives from all over the world participated in Converse’s digital gallery used to highlight stories of found family through different mediums.
Photographs, written letters, and other forms of art were curated to share examples and new meaning to found family. Along for the Pride ride, are also the stories of young creatives within Converse’s All Star community – the brand’s global network of young creatives.
Converse’s Pride campaign also features stories from members of several of its community partners, like It Gets Better Project, The Ali Forney Center, Skate Like A Girl, Theater Offensive, and more, that it supports through annual grants.
The campaign is also paired with the launch of its Pride 2022 collection, consisting of several inline products to celebrate Pride in style. But it also comes with the Converse By You custom experience, where you can express yourself through customizing your shoe of choice with designs inspired by Pride, bisexual, pansexual, lesbian, non-binary, transgender, and unity flags.
In a society where queer and trans people are discriminated against just for being who they are, having found family who love you no matter what can mean the world to so many. You can check out all of the digital campaign’s found family stories here and check out Converse’s new Pride collection here.
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