How To Use and Create LGBT QR Codes

It’s that time of the year when the world gets more colorful, the Pride flags are waved higher, and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) community are out and proud.

How can your brand support the cause and capture the attention of LGBTQ+ audiences and allies? We’ll focus on one of the most effective ways—QR Codes. 

Often associated with quick access to information, QR Codes have become indispensable in the modern world. LGBTQ QR Codes can help you promote awareness and inclusivity by making it easier for people to access vital community resources. You can even customize them to reflect the proud LGBT+ colors, aligning your campaign and the community. 

Here, we look at how to create and use LGBT codes. 

Note: Brands and associations discussed below were found during our online research for this article.

What are LGBT QR Codes?

LGBT QR Codes are two-dimensional barcodes that provide seamless access to digital resources for the LGBTQ+ community and allies. They can lead people to a wide variety of information, including LGBT-specific education materials, health resources, Pride parade event details, and LGBT-friendly businesses. 

These codes can also foster engagement by directing interested parties to support groups and fundraising opportunities for the community. Whatever information you want to provide to support LGBTQIA+ causes, rest assured QR Codes are the perfect bridges. 

Why should you create LGBT QR Codes?

We know what you’re thinking—why not just hand out print materials or use digital mediums like social media to offer your support? While these are also great solutions, they’re more restrictive than LGBT QR Codes—with print materials, you have to deal with space restrictions and appeal only to people you can reach physically. And, for digital mediums, you’re confined to audiences that come across you on the internet.

QR Codes let you leverage both options—you can incorporate QR Codes on social media posts and other digital mediums as well as print them on physical materials like brochures, allowing you to reach a wider audience.

Further, with LGBT QR Codes, you can provide seamless access to a wide range of information and resources, including event details, donation pages, and video educational materials. Other benefits of using these codes include:

• Making it easier to share information—it only takes a single scan with a mobile device to access a world of info. 
  
  
• Boosting visibility, as you can customize them to reflect the LGBT community. 
  
  
• Helping foster a sense of community by providing seamless access to support groups. 

Are QR Codes just for Pride Month?

Pride Month is an annual celebration (held in June) uplifting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual culture—supporting their rights, activism, and humanity. It all started on June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn when the police raided the New York City gay bar. Unlike during other raids, patrons and neighborhood residents, tired of the relentless police harassment, fought back and protested for days, paving the way for the first Pride march in 1970. 

Now to the main question: Are LGBT QR Codes just for Pride Month? Nope! 

You can use QR Codes in different contexts beyond Pride Month. For example, you can run ongoing awareness campaigns, educational initiatives, and community support programs outside of Pride Month to ensure members of the community have support all year round. This can offer several benefits for your LGBT customers and brand, including:

• Creating a sense of belonging throughout the year.
  
  
• Helping you stand out from brands associated with rainbow washing—offering superficial support during Pride Month to sell products.
  
  
• Fostering authentic allyship with your brand. 

How to implement LGBTQIA+ QR Codes in marketing campaigns

How do you create and leverage LGBTQIA+ QR Codes that convert? Here are some tips to guide you:

Stay clear of rainbow-washing

As mentioned earlier, this describes how businesses capitalize on the Pride symbol—the rainbow—in an attempt to show performative support for the LGBTQIA+ community without lifting a finger to support it tangibly. While it may not seem like a big deal, it can affect your reputation in the community and among its allies, limiting the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. 

How do you avoid rainbow washing? One way is to use LGBTQIA+ QR Codes as part of a genuine commitment to inclusivity and not just a marketing ploy. This can take various forms, including using the codes to direct audiences to helpful LGBTQIA resources rather than your products and leveraging them year-round instead of only using them during Pride Month. 

Give the stage to queer influencers and leaders

If you genuinely want to use your platform to support the movement, spotlight someone who can be a spokesperson for your campaign. Sit down with LGBTQIA influencers and leaders to learn what the community needs and how your brand can help. 

To promote your likelihood of success in these partnerships:

• Be careful in your selection: Take time to find LGBTQIA leaders who have great reputations and align with your brand values. This can make it easier for you to work together. 
  
  
• Engage them in your marketing campaign strategy: LGBTQIA leaders and influencers can provide valuable insights to help your campaign, as it’s more than likely they understand the community better than you. They can let you know how to provide valuable support. 
  
  
• Integrate their content with QR Codes: Use QR Codes to promote their content across different mediums. This can broaden your audience and provide easy access for interested customers. 

Join forces with LGBTQIA+ non-profits

LGBTQIA+ non-profits like the Trevor Project, GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), and GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network) can be excellent allies in your marketing campaigns. So, look into creating joint initiatives with them. 

You can create content, like educational videos and health resources, together and use QR Codes to spread it among your audiences. You can also leverage QR Codes to direct your audience to their donation pages to support fundraising efforts. While this doesn’t involve you directly, it can cement you as a reliable LGBTQIA ally and promote brand awareness within the community. 

Use promotional materials to spread the word

Don’t limit your LGBTQIA QR Codes to just one medium—use them on everything from digital platforms to print materials like brochures to enhance visibility and engagement.

Sharing the codes on digital mediums is relatively straightforward—you simply post the QR Code images on your chosen platform for people to scan. On the other hand, promotional materials require more work because you’ll need to select an appropriate location to ensure they reach your intended target audience.  

If you’re using QR Codes to share information to help the LGBTQIA community, find areas that members are known to frequent and position your codes there to ensure they help as many people as possible. For example, you can distribute them in establishments whose main customer base is members of the LGBTQIA community. If you want to target members and allies, position your codes in high-traffic areas to maximize your reach. 

Whether you go for digital or print materials, there are some best practices to keep in mind to maximize your QR Codes’ impact. You should:

• Create QR Codes with calls to action to let your audience know what to expect from scanning them.
  
   
• Make your codes visually appealing by changing the typical black-and-white design for more colorful options. 
  
  
• Avoid making common QR Code mistakes like choosing too-small codes or failing to test them before deployment. 

Examples of real brands supporting LGBT communities with QR Codes

Skeptical about using QR Codes? You don’t need to be—many brands have successfully leveraged them over the years. Here are some examples:

H&M

“Beyond the Rainbow” is a global campaign that ran from June to September 2021. It’s centered around narrating personal stories from different voices within the LGBTQIA+ global community. 

You’ll hear individual narratives from a diverse group—influencers, activists, artists, singers, actors, and in-house H&M employees—explaining why their stories matter and how amplifying voices within this global community invites others to live a little prouder and more authentically. 

As with a QR Code, you only need to scan the dedicated, vibrant rainbows via H&M’s web app to access the “Beyond the Rainbow” landing page, where you can listen to these stories.

Skittles

Skittles has been a supporter of the LGBTQIA community for a long time. It has implemented various initiatives, including:

• Transforming its brightly colored packaging into a dimmed-down colorless grey during Pride Month to celebrate the only rainbow that matters.
  
  
• Partnering with non-profits like GLAAD.
  
  
• Working with queer influencers to amplify LGBTQIA voices. 

In true Skittles fashion, the brand added LGBTQ+ QR Codes to its packaging in 2023. These codes were linked to Audible to provide easy access to free LGBTQIA stories on the audio streaming platform. This initiative not only shone a light on LGBT+ literature but also on the real experiences of community members.

The Body Shop

The Body Shop is a popular brand known for its activism. It has participated in various initiatives, including the All Blood Is Equal Campaign in Canada to allow members of the community who are sexually active to make blood donations, and more recently, the Free to Be campaign, which calls for members of the community and allies to support the U.S. Equality Act. 

In the Free to Be Campaign, the brand partnered with drag performers and the Equality Federation advocacy group to help audiences learn more about the act. It also positioned signage with QR Codes linked to information about the cause across its stores to maximize visibility and get as many people as possible to support the Equality Act from their mobile devices. 

Retold with Pride

As much as we enjoy a non-fiction queer story, we appreciate the artistic value of a fictional story with a Pride twist. In line with their values to create safe spaces and representation for the LGBTQIA+ community, Globe (an organization committed to instilling universal sustainability principles) and Pride@Tech, a non-profit organization based in Manilla, Philippines, launched a new campaign, “Retold with Pride.” 

Classic stories like Dracula, The Great Gatsby, and Life of PI, just to name a few, have been retold as new queer tales and renamed Dragula, The Great Gay, and Life of Bi. 

These reimagined stories depict the everyday realities that those in queer communities face while also touching on universal tropes that most can identify with—love, dating, and acceptance.

The initiative aims to increase the representation of people who have DGS (diverse genders and sexualities) in stories and provide tangible support and care facilities to an elderly LGBT organization called the Golden Gays. You’ll find QR Codes on the Globe website that you can scan to donate to a worthy cause.

Elton John AIDS Foundation

To enhance LGBTQIA-focused fundraising efforts, the Elton John Aids Foundation partnered with Ogilvy UK, a creative agency, and Clear Channel UK, a leading out-of-home advertising company, during Pride 2022.

The organizations created and showcased unique LGBTQIA QR Codes with Elton John’s image across Europe and the UK to direct allies to an innovative new fundraising platform geared at encouraging donations. 

Andersonville’s Pride House

You don’t have to be a brand to start a Pride campaign. Don’t believe us? Okay, storytime. A couple, now semi-famously known as the Andersonville couple, turned their house into a donation station for the LGBTQIA+ community. 

They used their bare hands to build a giant rainbow paintbrush on the walkway of their house and painted a poignant message on the steps of their porch: “Don’t be afraid to show your true colors.” 

What initially started as a display to show their solidarity with Pride quickly became a tourist attraction. Once the couple realized its popularity, they installed a QR Code, allowing others to donate to foundations like The Trevor Project and Men Having Babies.

Recently, the couple has gone all out to create an almost six-foot-tall Pride unicorn and added 36 Pride flags to their display to further shine the light on the community. 

How to create your own LGBT+ QR Codes

Creating LGBT+ QR Codes with QR Code Generator PRO is relatively straightforward:

1. Log into your account. 
   
   
2. Select + Create QR Code.
   
   
3. Select your preferred QR Code type. To choose the right one, consider your needs—you can use a Dynamic QR Code to lead scanners to your donation page, a social media code to direct them to social pages, or a PDF code to provide learning information. 
   
   
4. Choose Next.
   
   
5. Enter the information required (it will differ based on your QR Code type) and select Next. 
   
   
6. Design and customize your code—choose your preferred frame, pixel designs, and colors to transform it from a functional monochrome QR Code to a visually appealing one. You can even upload your logo. 
   
   
7. Download and share the code.

Create flawless QR Codes for LGBTQIA+ efforts with QR Code Generator PRO

Using LGBTQIA QR Codes will benefit your campaign by expanding your reach and making it easier for you to highlight the community’s experiences. Other brands and individuals have successfully done it, and so can you—with the right tool. 

With QR Code Generator PRO, you can create a wide range of LGBT+ QR Codes to support the community with everything from donations to information. Further, you can seamlessly customize the codes to reflect your unique brand identity and align with the Pride theme. 

Sign up for QR Code Generator PRO today to create custom LGBTQIA+ QR Codes that reflect the spirit of Pride!