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26 Nov 2024

Black Lives Matter — Our Anti-Racism Policy

Black Lives Matter to us

At Equally Wed and Equally Wed Pro, and our parent company, Palladino Publishing, LLC, we believe strongly that Black Lives Matter. Our dedication to equality in publishing has been long-standing. Since we launched in March 2010, we have always published Black LGBTQ+ weddings, partnered with Black LGBTQ+ inclusive wedding pros and paying Black writers. We have had a long-standing policy not to publish weddings that took place on known plantations, and we’ve had a long-standing policy to not allow advertising from wedding venues on known plantations. However, we know we can do more to make progress, and we’re dedicated to doing so publicly.

Our action plan to do more for eradicating racism in the wedding and publishing industry centers includes the following:

  • We believe we have the power to promote change with our platform and will play a more visible role in ending systemic racism and white supremacy in the wedding industry by advocating for Black speakers at conferences where we’re invited to speak as well as promoting more Black wedding pros, couples and venue owners.
  • We have a small team but when we are able to add to our core team or are in the position of hiring, we’ll actively pursue hiring people of color.
  • We will continue to educate ourselves by listening to Black leaders who are educating about the discrimination that their community faces.
  • We have ongoing partnerships with Black wedding pros to share what we have because we acknowledge that our successes as white LGBTQ+ business owners aren’t just on our own merit. We have benefited from white supremacy in ways we know and in ways we may never fully know. If you’re a Black LGBTQ+inclusive wedding pro and are interested in more information, we invite you to reach out to us at info@equallywed.com.
  • We will speak out either publicly or privately as each situation warrants when we see racism in the wedding industry.
  • We will listen and respond with action if our own actions are called into question as problematic. We are on a learning journey, and we aim to do better every day.

 

Unity Through Community

 

Other steps we’ve taken:

  • Signed the Step Up Pledge campaign from Jordan Maney, wedding planner at All the Days. Take action here.
  • We’re committed to Unity Through Community. Read more about that here.