Apple unveils Apple Watch Pride Edition to mark Pride Month 2020

June is Pride Month. Celebrated across the world with parades and protests, organising and advocacy, festivals and community and gatherings. This year, sadly, things are going to be very different.

“Not everyone has a safe and supportive family situation,” Elle Smith explains.

“We’re all missing out on a lot of different life events. It’s about honoring the changes in people’s lives, and marking the milestones we want to mark, while still being safe. We’re trying to make sure that students have access to fun and relaxation, too.”

Smith, the founder of is a part of her school’s Genders and Sexualities Alliance in Austin, Texas, is also the Student Advocate of the Year picked by GLSEN, a US-based LGBTQ organisation. 

GLSEN has inspired and helped lead a global movement to end discrimination, harassment, and bullying in schools and the organisation supports student advocates like Smith and provides the resources that help them change their communities, one conversation at a time.

The global pandemic has cancelled a lot of things, but the work done by advocates like Smith hasn’t disappeared — it’s adapted to meet an urgent need.

“Pride season is a time where it feels safer to be authentic. It’s the ideal world where you’re able to be safe, you’re able to be yourself, and you’re able to be loud,” Smith said.

“I think everyone who’s involved with LGBTQ organisations has done a great job shifting our programs and outreach to a virtual format. We want to keep our momentum going and make sure everyone has access to resources just as they would have pre-Covid,” Smith added.

GLSEN is one of the organisations whose work on behalf of LGBTQ people Apple supports with its annual Apple Watch Pride Edition band and face collection.

This year, Apple has come up with the Pride Edition Sport Band and has been joined for the first time by the new Apple Watch Nike Pride Edition Sport Band. 

Both these bands are available today on apple.com, the Apple Store app and Apple stores. To go with these are new matching Pride Watch faces that are coming soon as a part of watchOS 6.2.5.

Through this effort, Apple and Nike are supporting LGBTQ organisations doing vital advocacy and community-building worldwide, including GLSEN, PFLAG, The Trevor Project, Gender Spectrum, The National Center for Transgender Equality, and ILGA World, which brings together more than 1,500 member organisations in more than 150 countries and regions.