LUSH Demands GAY RIGHTS

LUSH COSMETICS DEMAND GAY RIGHTS THIS VALENTINE’S DAY

Over 700 LUSH Cosmetics shops in more than 40 countries will celebrate Valentine’s Day 2014 by promoting the campaign for LGBTQ rights and equal love in partnership with All Out - the global movement for love and equality with 1,9 million members.

From 27th January – 14th February, LUSH shops are declaring: WE BELIEVE IN LOVE and LUSH staff are inviting their customers to show solidarity with marginalised LGBTQ communities by painting a #SignofLove on their body.

The #SignofLove is a pink triangle, which is now seen as a global sign of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & Queer (LGBTQ) rights. Used first by the Nazis as a badge to mark and identify gay people in concentration camps, this triangle has been turned on its head and reclaimed by the LGBTQ community to symbolise gay rights.

The Valentine’s campaign is launched in partnership with All Out to coincide with the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. When LUSH staff and customers paint and share their #SignofLove, they are responding to new legislation in Russia that bans the “propaganda of non traditional sexual relations to minors”. The campaign will not run in LUSH’s Russian shops.

Emma Hart, LUSH Australia Ethical Champion comments,

“With all eyes being on Russia for the Sochi Winter Olympics, it is the perfect time to stand up and tell the Russian government that the general public does not agree with their anti-gay laws. We have the opportunity to take this stance globally, here in Australia LUSH will continue to fight for marriage equality. Love is love, no matter who it is between and we believe that no government has the right to implement laws against that.”

Andre Banks, Executive Director of ALL OUT says,

“We’ve joined Lush in a partnership to spread #SignofLove so that LUSH customers - straight, LGBT, and otherwise - can show their solidarity with LGBTQ Russians before and during the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi.”