Con nosotrxs. Por nosotrxs. Para todxs.
Every June, brands discover the rainbow. Logos change. Limited editions drop. And the LGBTQ+ community watches corporations perform allyship for 30 days before going quiet again. HBO Max wanted something different. They had the content — stories that actually represented queer lives, created by queer voices. They had the internal commitment — a Director of Diversity, writers and producers who lived these experiences. What they didn’t have was a way to show up in Mexico that felt real. The risk was obvious: do this wrong and you’re just another logo in a Pride parade. Pinkwashing with a streaming budget
We started with a word: Unión. Not “pride.” Not “celebration.” Union — the act of bringing things together to make a whole, physical or symbolic. It felt warmer. Less corporate. More like what actually happens when a community gathers. Then we made a rule: nothing about this could be for the community without being from the community. We partnered with an LGBTQ+ artist to develop the visual identity — those painterly brush strokes that feel handmade, human, the opposite of corporate-rainbow. We brought in voices from the Muxe community in Oaxaca, trans actresses, queer journalists, HBO Max’s own LGBTQ+ employees. Not as guests. As collaborators. The event itself — held June 23rd in Mexico City — was five hours of panels, performances, art, DJ sets, and a voguing battle between House of Apocalipstick and House of Magdalena. A purple carpet instead of a red one. Over 800 people in attendance. And we wrote the manifesto that tied it together: Con nosotrxs. Por nosotrxs. Para todxs. With us. By us. For everyone.
HBO Max’s first LGBTQ+ activation in Latin America became one of their most talked-about moments of the year. 88 million potential reach across social media and traditional press. 673 posts generated from attendees and influencers — 17.6 million impressions. 26 traditional media publications including EFE, Infobae, and Tomatazos — reaching 3.8 million readers. $103K+ in earned media value from a single evening. But the number that mattered most: zero accusations of pinkwashing. The community showed up because the community helped build it.
