My Weekend Pride

Well, it’s Pride Month again. As we watch corporation after corporation turn their logos rainbow, please never forget that they aren’t really our friends. Yes, it’s good when corporations express support for LGBTQ+ rights. Yes, it’s good when corporations feature LGBTQ+ people in their marketing. Yes, it’s good when corporations donate to LGBTQ+ causes. But, for the most part, they’re only doing so because they believe it will help them make more money. Money, not equality, is their end goal. So if they think publicly seeming to support equality will make them money, they will do it.

But also never forget that many of these very same companies will then turn around and donate to GOP politicians who vote against LGBTQ+ rights. These same corporations will donate to politicians who support anti-trans and anti-gay laws. These same corporations will donate to politicians who call LGBTQ+ people groomers and vilify us to stay in power. They do that, too, because they know supporting them will also make them more money. Again, the goal is money — not equality.

We can’t let these corporations have their big gay cake and eat it too. So your AT&Ts, your Walmarts, your Wells Fargos, your CVSes and many, many more. They’re all too happy to slap a rainbow on themselves each June, but then give money to the very Republican lawmakers trying to take away our rights and ban trans people from existing. Fuck that.

I know it’s hard to avoid all ethical dilemmas while navigating our interconnected, megacorporation landscape. I use and have used several of the 25 companies on the Very Naughty List. At times it’s almost unavoidable if you participate at all in our modern economy (because, again, corporations at their core aren’t progressive entities, they’re money-making entities). Still we certainly don’t have to celebrate these companies for their rainbow activism while they fund the very people making our lives harder, sadder and less safe. That’s going to be a no from me, folks. Hard pass.

Corporate pride should only be recognized for companies that put in the work. Companies that speak out against hateful laws targeting gay and trans people. And companies that, at a bare minimum, don’t give money to hatemongers.

Never forget that Pride started as a riot. We fought against the police, the unjust system, the criminalization of our very lives. So today’s vanilla-fication of the event and corporate takeover of parades could be seen as a sign of progress. But as far as we think we’ve come, we can always go backwards. Indeed, Republicans and the religious right are actively trying to drag us back into the closet. But we’ll never go back.

So go ahead, companies, and turn everything rainbow. But you’d better truly mean it. We’re here, we’re queer, and we see you, corporate America. We see you. Happy weekend, all.