As many of you know, one of the 6 promises we made to our community back in June was to undertake a diversity audit of all content posted in 2020 to date. Well, that we did. We used an independent analyst to work through every editorial posted in 2020 to analyze what percentage of the couples featured are diverse, whether that be in race, ethnicity or sexual orientation. So, in an effort to stay completely transparent with our community – today we’re sharing the results of our audit, along with our goals for a better, more inclusive future on SMP.
Let us first start by saying, wow… we certainly have a lot of work to do – as you will see clearly in our data. Despite a conscious effort to publish more weddings featuring BIPOC & same-sex weddings since mid 2018 when the business was taken back over by Abby & Tait, we have not done enough to combat underrepresentation of these couples on SMP. Using the US census as a benchmark, we fell way short of being representative of the makeup of the US population where the majority of our audience is located.
In the period from January 2020 to May 2020, there have been a total of 282 posts. The breakdown of which is as follows:
As you can see, between January and May of this year, just 9% of our weddings featured a Black or African American bride or groom, and only 5% a Hispanic or Latino individual. We are striving to raise these percentages to each be consistently over 15% every month by the end of 2020.
In June 2020, there has been a total of 25 posts, down 40% MoM (due to COVID-19 and a brief pause in publishing). The breakdown of which is as follows:
Between January to May 2020, 2% of the celebrations we published were same sex weddings and 12% included just a single bride or groom. In June 2020, this increased to 4%, while single bride or groom publications remained at 12% of the total.
Moving forwards we also strive to ensure that our representation of LGBTQ couples spans across all the different races, religions and ethnicities that we showcase on SMP.com and forms an integral part of our commitment to diversity, rather than an aside. The estimate of those in the US currently identifying as LGBTQ stands at 5% – so again we work to increase our representation here from 2% between January – May, 4% in June and above 5% by the end of this year.
As we continue to work towards achieving our diversity goals, it’s very important to us to continue to be transparent with you all. We also want to acknowledge that improving representation of minority couples on our site is just one part of the puzzle. We must improve representation of the vendors we showcase and the voices we provide too. There is much more work to be done, but we’re committed to it. And with all of your support, we’re confident that we can become a better ally to any and all minority individuals moving forward.
If you would like to submit a wedding or wedding-related event that features a diverse couple to SMP, we sincerely encourage you to do so! Head on over to our submissions portal and please submit, submit, submit! Thank you all so much again for your continued patience, understanding and support. Thank you for encouraging us to always be better and strive for change as a leader in our community. We have so much for you all!