English

Verb

pinkwash ‎(third-person singular simple present pinkwashes, present participle pinkwashing, simple past and past participle pinkwashed)

1. To cover in a coat of pink paint.
   • 1986, Susan Lardner, "Lotus Blossum", The New Yorker, 29 December 1986:

     […] I see, twenty yards away, workmen pinkwashing the newly laid, badly stained, cheap-looking brick cladding of a newly built apartment house called — well, something ridiculous: Nepal, let's say.

2. To promote consumer goods and services using support of breast cancer-related charities.
   • 2008, Penelope Williams, Breast Cancer: Biography of an Illness, BPS Books (2008), ISBN 9780980923155, page 162:

     They see such corporate involvement as exploitation, making profits on the backs of ill women. […] They claim these campaigns trivialize the disease, "pinkwashing" its real nature.

3. (LGBT) To tout the gay-friendliness of something in an attempt to downplay or soften aspects of it considered negative.
   • 2012, "Seattle LGBT commission cancels meeting with Israeli gays over treatment of Palestinians", The Times of Israel, 21 March 2012 (article tagline):

     Critics say Israel is 'pinkwashing' its practices vis-a-vis the Palestinians by emphasizing its good record on gay rights.

Quotations

• For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:pinkwash.