Does a tick make it alright? - transgender and non-binary people's perspective and behaviour towards the Rainbow Tick

Rainbow third-party certifications are under explored, with no work exploring Rainbow consumers' perspectives. Consequently, this paper aims to capture these perceptions but from the perspective of transgender and non-binary (TGNB) consumers. Given dominant systemic binarism, TGNB individuals are often overlooked and experience invisibility and market vulnerability. Semi-structured interviews revealed TGNB consumers showed concern and scepticism about the authenticity of the Rainbow Tick certification with evaluating factors including transparency, robustness, accountability and inaccuracies emerging. Moreover, affiliated companies themselves do not take enough responsibility in promoting their certification and are not engaging communities continuously. The findings provide a tool for evaluating Rainbow certification as a branding tool and a typology for gauging authenticity.