Pride Month and the Corporate Pandering

[Roen]

Alright, so, I wasn't sure if this should go here, but I do feel like it's more political than just pure LGBT topic.

I will first say that I am a CiS homosexual male, and I don't like the month of June. I don't have a problem with pride month, obviously, my problem is all of the hate that it brings out. In no other month of the year do I feel less safe or more attacked than I do on Pride Month. It is on Pride Month that all of the INCELs, Libertarians and just general homophobic people crawl out of any nook and cranny to spam every forum, meme website and social media platform with their hateful and despicable shit-posting...and I just feel terrible.

Their latest (if not newest) complain, as if to justify their mockery and awfulness, is that they're not homophobic, they just "hate how the corporations are exploiting pride month and pretending to be LGBT positive to get the community and the woke people's money". Yes, they're definitely looking out for us, they don't want us to be exploited.

To that I say, so what? When the corporations do the same thing on Women's day, Cancer Awareness month, or any other occasion, do they do that because they're trying to be your friend? They want your money, corporations care about the bottom line, always have. I'm fine with that, I don't care about their true intentions (in this scenario) and I'm not that bothered that in the Middle East they don't do that.

I'm fine with that, because it's not about the corporations' support, it's about their acknowledgment of the LGBT and SJ community's consumer power and influence. It is a testament to how powerful the LGBT community has become, socially and financially, and you know what? In a world where money speaks louder than the fickle public opinion and the empty words of the politically correct, I'll take that over heartfelt support any day. No oppressed population has ever gotten their rights by being meek and timid and apologetic about how loud they're being.

I personally think that the people on the other side of the fence have reached the same conclusion. It's not that they're tired of all the rainbow logos, it's not that they're offended by the greedy hypocrisy, it's that they recognize the financial validation and the social influence and they feel scared. For one month, they're no longer on the top of the chain, and it makes them feel "oppressed". I'm not going to feel bad about that. I've never seen any financially, socially or politically dominating group apologizing for their lobbyists, tycoons, CEOs or social leader's success, and I think it's kind of hypocritical to demand that the LGBT community be modest and only accept gestures of true good faith or stick to some impossible fairy tale moral high-ground.

Alright, that was my soap box, I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the subject. 

[Kathadon]

Also a not LGBT, but I have the feeling from your post that you are more sick of bad faith actors. The biggest problem I have, is all this commercialized support is ultimately pretty empty. This is the problem with commodifying “awareness”: Even if it serves to raise money for a cause, there’s no guarantee that money will result in any sort of tangible outcome for the oppressed at all. It’s nominal activism divorced from real action.

There are a number of LGBTQ+ groups that have called out Google, for instance, for posting Pride flags, but mandating that Transgender employees use their dead name on company emails and ID's unless it is legally changed by the state.

Or tout gay rights during June, but then give to anti-LGBTQ politicians all over the world. This causes WAY more harm then a token icon change for a month. Far more important, what happens to the money we spend in these supposedly LGBTQ friendly stores?

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/companies-tout-gay-rights-during-pride-give-to-anti-lgbt-politicians-1181006/

I am all for calling out bad faith actors, but be careful. As these same corporations will then use their false criticism to deflect from the actual harm they are causing while pocketing your money, wearing a rainbow sticker, and a smile.

[Blythe]

No oppressed population has ever gotten their rights by being meek and timid and apologetic about how loud they're being.

Quite agree with a lot of your post, but I agreed the most with this.

I think this is in part why bigots like to get real loud in June about LGBTQA topics. They're trying to drown out oppressed voices during our loudest month.

[Saria]

I'm fine with that, because it's not about the corporations' support, it's about their acknowledgment of the LGBT and SJ community's consumer power and influence. It is a testament to how powerful the LGBT community has become, socially and financially, and you know what? In a world where money speaks louder than the fickle public opinion and the empty words of the politically correct, I'll take that over heartfelt support any day. No oppressed population has ever gotten their rights by being meek and timid and apologetic about how loud they're being.

I say absolutely yes to everything there, and even go a step further and say it’s even more than that… and you’ve even kinda edged close to the next big point.

So, yes, when corporations wave the rainbow flag, that is important as a signal that supporting LGBTQ2S+ people and their rights is now mainstream. It’s important as a signal to LGBTQ2S+ people who are still closeted and afraid that there is hope, and, if not now, then maybe soon, it will be okay to publicly declare themselves, and be welcomed and loved for who they are. It’s also important as a signal to the homophobes and transphobes* out there that they are not winning… that they are on the wrong side of history… and sure, it sucks that that will make them angrier, louder, and more desperate as they start to feel the icy inevitability of their own mortality, but… frankly… ha, ha, ha, ha, you fucking losers, we will get to write the history books, and you will be the dipshit assclown flunkies in it!

But there is another, and, in my opinion, more important reason why we should care that corporations are feeling forced to tout their pro-gay cred.

You see, an interesting aspect of human psychology is that while we may dislike wanton cruelty, dickishness, and all those other bad things… the one thing that we absolutely cannot tolerate the most is hypocrisy.

So when a company puts up a rainbow-ized version of their logo… but still does discriminatory things against LGBTQ2S+ people… we get more angry at them than if they merely did the discrimination… which they’d probably been doing for years or decades, but no-one commented on until they tried to claim to be allies.

I think that should be pretty uncontroversial. If you look at companies like Hobby Lobby or Chick-fil-a, they’re probably horrible at being tolerant, or at least non-discriminatory, but while people may grumble about them in general terms, you don’t really see people calling them out for specific sins, or challenging them to take specific actions. But when a company that tries to brand itself as pro-LGBTQ2S+ gets caught doing something intolerant or discriminatory, the motherfucking Internet explodes on them, even for the slightest infractions.

Case-in-point: how else would we ever have heard that Google forcibly deadnames its employees? That’s probably an extremely common practice in the corporate world… but we only hear about it in reference to Google, and specifically because of Google’s performative allyship.

That is why I’m actually very cool with corporate pandering—and yes, let’s not be naïve, it is pandering, and these corporations are not doing this because they actually care, but because they see profit potential in it. It’s not merely that it’s symbolic, or that the symbolic actions can have real impact on people who really need the signs of support. (The symbolic actions also have real impact on the bigots, as I mentioned… but fuck them; don’t care about them.) It’s that when they put those rainbows on their branding, they open themselves up to charges of hypocrisy if they’re not actually practising their claimed pro-LGBTQ2S+ beliefs… and that gives us a hook we can use to force them to do better, and to make real, substantive changes that will make actual differences in the lives of LGBTQ2S+ people.

So yeah, by all means dear soulless corporation, please do make a rainbow version of your logo for June… because it will be a bullseye target-of-opportunity for lefty scumbags like me to point out your donations to right-wing politicians and other homophobic political groups, or other shitty stuff you’re up to.

"* Almost completely unrelated aside"

I noticed as I wrote these comments that my spellchecker accepted “homophobes”, but flagged “transphobes”. I found that wonderfully fascinating.

I can’t imagine that “homophobe” was in anyone’s dictionary just a decade or two ago. And yet now… there it is. That’s power. That’s an indication of how our society is changing, and of how progressive values like tolerance are winning. If you’re “uncomfortable” with gay people, we have a word for you. And it’s in the dictionary.

We’ve made huge progress for the L, G, and B in the acronym. But we’re still working on the rest. “Transphobe” isn’t in the dictionary yet. But it will be.

[Oniya]

I think that should be pretty uncontroversial. If you look at companies like Hobby Lobby or Chick-fil-a, they’re probably horrible at being tolerant, or at least non-discriminatory, but while people may grumble about them in general terms, you don’t really see people calling them out for specific sins, or challenging them to take specific actions. But when a company that tries to brand itself as pro-LGBTQ2S+ gets caught doing something intolerant or discriminatory, the motherfucking Internet explodes on them, even for the slightest infractions.

Little Oni has told me that if Chik-Fil-A tries to do Pride-month rainbows, the Internet will absolutely end them.  (She's ace-bi, which she describes as 'Your gender doesn't affect how much I'm attracted to you, but everyone keep your pants on.')

[TheGlyphstone]

While it's not super constructive to the topic, I found this image from the E Discord to be amusingly on-topic:

[Andol]

Little Oni has told me that if Chik-Fil-A tries to do Pride-month rainbows, the Internet will absolutely end them.  (She's ace-bi, which she describes as 'Your gender doesn't affect how much I'm attracted to you, but everyone keep your pants on.')

Doubt that will ever happen... they seem make their money pandering to the other side of the equation. Would make for some quality memes though. 

[Fox Lokison]

While it's not super constructive to the topic, I found this image from the E Discord to be amusingly on-topic:

This sums up my feelings. We're talking about dyed in the wool bigots, getting mad at fucking weapons manufacturers for slapping a rainbow pride flag on their logo for one month.

It's a bizarre set of bullshit that often just has me rolling my eyes. I'm not benefitted by this, these companies and people do not care about me, and all they want is to capitalize off my existence to appear progressive, and get people who buy that crap to support them.

Call me when any of those fuckers push back against the laws checking children's genitals, or making businesses put up signs to say they let trans people use specific bathrooms. Otherwise, I do not care about them, nor the bigoted fuckheads who lose their minds at a rainbow flag.

I just do not have the patience for this entire battle. It's kind of like the shit TERFs are currently pushing. I have no use or patience for their small, petty grievances, or their upset over the slightest amount of social acceptance for the LGBTQ+ community. Bloody pointless.