The Ford Motor Company has been at the forefront of supporting the LGBTQ community. The automaker was the first to receive a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index since 2004 and has had high scores every year. Ford also stood by the LGBTQ community at a time when “pro-family” religious groups boycotted the company over its support. In 2020, Ford, along with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and General Motors, were among companies in Michigan pushing for the state to add legal protections for LGBT individuals to Michigan’s civil rights law.
Ford’s dedication to its LGBTQ employees began in 1994 when it first established Ford Family as a way to start a conversation on gay, lesbian, and bisexual workplace issues. A year later, the group’s name changed to Ford Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual Employees (Ford GLOBE) and is still going strong to this day.
After receiving a homophobic comment on its Performance Blue F-150 Raptor, saying that the color was “very gay”, Ford’s Germany division rolled out the Very Gay Raptor for Germany’s Christopher Street Day Celebration (an equivalent of Pride celebrations in the United States) in Cologne, the largest celebration in Germany.
This isn’t the first time Ford has adorned one of its vehicles in a rainbow. In 1998, the automobile manufacturer designed a special truck version of the Ford Ka car with the full rainbow for Cologne’s CSD celebration. The Very Gay Raptor was also part of the ColognePride 2021 parade on Sunday, August 22.
(Photo Credit: Ford Media Center Deutschland)
(Photo Credit: Ford Media Center Deutschland)
(Photo Credit: Ford Media Center Deutschland)
Sources: Ford Motor Company, Freep, Baptist Press, Ford GLOBE, Berlin.de, Auto Evolution, Ford Media Center Deutschland
