Where are the Pride logos? What happened to rainbow capitalism? Don’t companies want our gay money anymore?
As anti-LGBTQ bills and laws endanger queer and trans Americans across the country—and after Bud Light and Target’s LGBTQ initiatives sparked conservative backlash and boycotts—it appears some corporations aren’t adding rainbows to their logos anymore.
As AdWeek notes, the “culture war has come for even performative marketing.”
Daniel Korschun, associate professor of marketing at Drexel University, tells CNN Business that corporate executives “are becoming much more skittish about taking these stands and making strong statements” and that “the pendulum is swinging a bit back … toward a more conservative approach, where they’ll be less vocal.”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Normally, we complain about companies that change their logo for the month of June but don’t do much else to support LGBTQ+ equality.
But as Twitter users point out, it’s even more concerning when companies don’t even add rainbows to their profile pics during a year when 520 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in U.S. state legislatures, with more than 220 of those bills targeting trans and nonbinary individuals.
With research showing trans people are over four times more likely than cis people to be the victims of violent crime, you’d think more companies would throw a rainbow or two up on social media. Alas, corporate Pride hits different this year, and these Twitter users have noticed.
where are all the pride company logos pic.twitter.com/YnOjWsfXY5
— ? ? (@HailEternal) June 1, 2023
the thing is, criticizing the companies for performative rainbow logos only makes sense in a context where you think we are becoming more progressive as a society and they need to catch up. When we seem to be regressing instead, seeing them drop the logos is a bit unnerving ngl
— sanjana curtis! ? (@sanjanacurtis) June 3, 2023
damn we really just decided to skip pride logos this year huh.
— WyattIssues?? (@WyattIssue) June 1, 2023
corporate pride will always be perfomative and nothing can prove otherwise. however, the fact that rainbow capitalism is largely being discarded *now* when there’s been an increased anti-trans agenda in the states over the past year is not a great thing, either. https://t.co/WPYh8GlcS1
— big popular XOLARIS. (@xolashores) June 5, 2023
it’s june 1st and companies didn’t change their logos for pride month. it’s giving pic.twitter.com/9cMnPoT1GT
— zander (@zandirts) June 2, 2023
The lack of rainbow logos this year wasn’t the point of criticizing rainbow capitalism.
It was that the logos showed a hypocrisy where the same corps donate to anti-LGBTQ+ politicians and refuse to support trans employees.
Of course, rather than do that, they remove the logos.
— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) June 3, 2023
There is something so sinister in the air this pride month… like corporations aren’t even trying to capitalize… Its over pic.twitter.com/MdGByxjmbl
— north west fan #7 (@c4tieratch) June 2, 2023
btw, companies aren’t changing their logos to rainbow this year NOT because they’re taking a stand against rainbow capitalism or performative activism or something. it’s because they sense there will be more homophobic backlash this year.
— ellie (@radfemswiftie) June 3, 2023
it is simultaneously terrible that many corporations are too fearful (?) this year to brand themselves for pride and also exactly why we should not care about their fragile, hollow, for-profit pandering in the first place
— ben (@benvyle) June 3, 2023
no new pride corporate/brand logos today??? hmmm!!! pic.twitter.com/vMKnaKTV83
— khardashian™ (@kharitbh) June 1, 2023
Criticism of rainbow capitalism didn’t mean they should stop using the flag ???? It meant they should back that up with actions helping the community.
Not bothering with even a logo change is Worse, Actually.
— ???FunfettiGetti ???@ Enamel Pins (@FunfettiGetti) June 4, 2023
asking corporations if they’re celebrating pride month this year pic.twitter.com/JtE5wBrBEX
— ethan #CrackerBarrelHasFallen (@ethanshumjr) June 2, 2023
DarkZephyr
Well, for years Gen Z has been b*tching and whining, whining and b*tching about corporate Pride logos during Pride, and now they’re b*tching and whining now that they aren’t there. I have little sympathy. I’m old enough to remember when corporations were our last defense against men like Mike Pence when he governed Indiana. It was the case in several other states as well. Corporations threatening to pull out of these states once upon a time saved us from a LOT of anti-LGBT legislation. I knew for a long time how important corporations were in our fight against anti-LGBT laws and yet these kids would get on their high little horses and complain about it and attack the companies and I would try to remind them about what corporations did for us in the past AND what it had been like even earlier when we were never acknowledged at all by companies. They would fight me about that. Well, now they’re getting their wish it seems. No more “performative” support. No more “pandering”. And most likely no more corporate support against anti-LGBT legislation either. Looks like we’re alone out here now with little protection against anti-LGBT legislation and hate. I hope they’re happy now that they’ve gotten their wish.
Donston
It probably has a lot more to do with backlash from homophobes, transphobes, anti-gay people and self-hating queers than it has to do with “Gen Z Twitter whining”. But I am fine with less of the forced pride stuff. There are many other ways to show support and non-hate.
still_onthemark
Corporations over the decades thought it’s easy to “pander” to LGBs: just make ads that are funny and campy.
Now corporations have a new stereotype to deal with – the Humorless Generation, Gen Z, who are offended by everything (including camp) and often feel “unsafe” by words on a screen and *omg you can’t joke about that or a thousand trans kids will immediately commit suicide* yada yada yada. This is no doubt an unfair stereotype (well, probably! – some days I wonder), but the ad agencies are unsure how to sell to Gen Z.
storm45701
Exactly. Can’t have it both ways.
frapachino
@ Donston “self-hating queers” oh brother!
abfab
Saint Frapo, stick with your Readers Digest. It’s more your speed.
ncman
I live in NC and the difference this year in reaction to anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is very noticeable. When HB2, the bathroom bill was implemented in NC in 2016, the were immediate reaction from corporations, sports leagues, entertainers and convention business and state travel bans all boycotting NC. But, this time around we have crickets. And, I believe it’s because there are so many states going after the LGBTQ+ community, abortion rights and enacting voter suppression laws that they can’t (or won’t) boycott 25 states all at once. So the conservatives are giving themselves cover by going big in so many states all at once
frapachino
The trans radical activists have set gay rights back decades.
abfab
The Drama Queen award goes to Saint Frapo.
CatholicXXX
Most of the hate seems to be directed at the T of LGBT+. There was friction before but not to this degree.
I’m not surprised most companies dropped the gays and I don’t really care. They didn’t add anything and didn’t make me more likely to purchase their products.
inbama
It’s that winning combination of Queer Theory, pronouns, sterilizing children and narcissistic overkill:
Agender Pride Day – May 19
Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week – Feb 14
Aromantic Visibility Day – June 5
International Asexuality Day – April 6
Ace Week -Last full week in October
Bisexual Pride Day – September 23
Genderfluid Visibility Week – October 17- 24
Drag Day – July 16
International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia – May 17
International Day of Pink – second Wednesday in April
Intersex Awareness Day – October 26
Intersex Day of Remembrance – November 8 ]
Lesbian Day – October 8
Lesbian Visibility Day – April 26
National Coming Out Day – October 11
Non-Binary Awareness Week -July 14
Pansexual & Panromantic Awareness Day – May 25
Pride Month – June 1
Pronouns Day -The third Wednesday in October Trans Awareness Month
Trans Awareness Week – Nov 13-19
Transgender Day of Remembrance – November 20
Trans Day of Visibility – March 31
Trans Parent Day -The first Sunday in November
Zero Discrimination Day – March 1
World AIDS Day – December 1
Fname Optional Lname
except most cis gendered str8 people do not know about most of these days. Also, nobody is sterilizing children.
LeBlevsez
You’re wrong, inbama.
Bigotry is the catalyst. Bigots howl, and bigots write bigoted laws.
Is your point that all of these endeavors are bad? Including those that apply only to your preferred LGB(stop) issues?
Did you find this list on a bigot’s website that you frequent? Or did you do the research yourself and compile this list that can now be used by bigots as a way to inspire fear in the weak minded? Either way, YOU are fomenting bigotry.
And what do we call someone who foments bigotry?
Kangol2
No one is “sterilizing” children but over the last 125 years right-wing eugenicists and various state governments did forcibly sterilize 60,000+ women! So please, take that right-wing garbage propaganda and your defense of anti-LGBTQIA+ extremists somewhere else!
still_onthemark
I kind of like Genderfluid Visibility Week because I slipped and fell on that stuff once. I wish it were more visible the rest of the year!
@LeBlevsez: Every single one of those events was created by proponents, not by bigots.
still_onthemark
@LeBlevsez: I easily found where inbama got that list – Wikipedia, “List of LGBT awareness periods” – oooh, sinister! But of course Wikipedia is a bunch of bigots and anyone who reads Wikipedia is a bigot.
Openminded
Most of the country is pissed because there are 30 days of PRIDE. They would really scream if they realized there are actually 84 days of awareness. Lesbians claim 2 days to themselves (plus maybe 1 for “Pink” day), Trans come in with 10 designated days (Plus 1 for Pronouns IF you consider that a Trans only issue), Bi’s have 1 day, and it appears the Gays don’t actually have a day for just themselves. Obviously most of the days celebrate/recognize all spectrums. I’m thinking we need to demand at least a couple of days for Gays Only!! Surely we can forgo “Zero Discrimination Day” , and give it to the Gays as we are obviously discriminating against them.
LeBlevsez
still_onthemark –
I did not impugn the motives of those organizations. inbama did when he called them “narcissistic overkill.”
inbama’s purpose is to shift blame from the bigots to the people they marginalize.
Nefarious, no?
inbama
@Kangol2
I know this may come as a surprise to you, but so-called puberty blockers actually prevent puberty. And if you don’t experience puberty (as Jazz Jennings found out after her third failed vaginoplasty), you probably will never experience an orgasm let alone produce offspring.
But hey, this is all a wonderful journey that any three year old can understand and consent to, and I’m just being a party-pooper
Bosch
@inbama
Postponing puberty is for a few years, not forever. It’s literally done to prevent teens from transitioning; that’s the opposite of what bigots claim.
Also, why would a three year old need puberty blockers? Were you hairy toddler?
frapachino
@ kangol sorry dude he has a right to spew his vitriol the same as you do.
Kangol2
@ fraps, of course you chime in to my facts with a comment about “vitriol.” Still living rent-free in your mind!
abfab
Saint Frapo…the Nuns are expecting you now. You’re way past the Convent Curfew.
inbama
@Bosch
The latest study showed that the combination of lying to children (called “Affirmation Therapy’) and puberty blockers leads to nearly 100% going on to transition. And physically, when you’ve missed puberty, there is no physical returning possible.
That’s why Britain’s NHS has put a halt to it. Google the NY Times article ” Britain Limits Use of Puberty-Blocking Drugs to Research Only .”
And stop lying.
abfab
@bama. Do you have children?
abfab
@bama The entire YEAR should be just a celebration of you.
inbama
@LeBlevsez
How on earth is my telling you where things are going wrong spreading bigotry and make me responsible for this horrible backlash? The people calling the shots are responsible. The foolish drag queens posting videos of themselves pole-dancing half naked in front of kids are. The Canadian shop-teacher transwoman Kayla Lemieux going to work with fake tits as big as watermelons and her nipples poking through her blouse.
Minorities only win when we show the rest of the country that being different doesn’t mean we don’t hold the same American values that they do. Making it our mission to “break the binary” and hold up fools like Dylan Mulvaney as role models has made us has handed our enemies everything they need to go after us.
But hey man, you just keep being a lemming and blame me.
LeBlevsez
inbama –
What you refer to as ‘backlash’ is not backlash. It’s just straight forward ‘lash’. Bigots are feeling their oats these days, and when they feel empowered, they act. Stop carrying their water. Stop promoting their half-baked examples of Hell-in-a-handbasket. And stop blaming the people they intend to hurt.
Get specific about the American values you hold dear, and tell it to the bigots. If your values are truly American, you’ll probably end up on their naughty list.
innocentgay
Drag queens don’t pole dance, and rarely even perform in venues that allow children due to liquor laws. They certainly don’t perform naked, or even half-naked – that’s contrary to the entire concept of drag, which is to get dressed up. That you ignored these simple and universally known facts about drag queens proves that you are nothing but a troll who makes shii up out of whole cloth.
Well; out of tired old rags, really.
abfab
@bama.
Watermelons and nipples. I see your GOPTROLL vocabulary has expanded.
Mister P
The problem isn’t his rights it the vitriol. Why such disdain for his own community?
mastik8
Corporations could see the internal dissent in the community and think that until we’ve worked it out there’s no upside for them. The homophobia and misogyny of the trans movement isn’t helping. Involving children was an easily avoided error that gets excused away with the inexcusable, We were trying to help. Nor is the trans community’s obvious internalized transphobia and their demand for all or nothing support. If you can’t see the internalized transphobia of the trans movement then you’re the problem friend. Do the math on that one yourself. Of course, the trans movement and the gender identity crowd have quite cleverly created a circular firing squad of blame and ad hominem so no one will be left standing and everyone will lose. It’s everyone’s fault but theirs. Stop punching down on us trans community. Do better. Mansplaining to us and women, who have been mansplained to for all recorded history, that this is inclusion rather than erasure quite obviously isn’t working.
Mister P
Very clever way to not make a good point. Blaming men and the trans community is definitely easier for small minds.
London_resistance
“With research showing trans people are over four times more likely than cis people to be the victims of violent crime,” – what utter bs. That link to those stats are suspect as hell, just like most tranzie stats
You transies and their fanzies lie and lie and lie and lie and lie for the melodramatic effect. Here in the UK and across Europe crimes of violence, and murder, against trans women are miniscule. Murder and assault rates aimed at gays and lesbians are far higher, but then even then they’re miniscule.
And I bet these stats are exactly the same for the cross dressers in the USA.
“Transgender people (16+) are victimized over four times more often than cisgender people.” – what are these stats based on?? There’s no breakdown of how they were compiled. In other words they’re nonsense and meaningless.
Someone misgendering you is NOT a hate crime
The real story is the murder of women across the world, which the kiddies at Queerty would never report on.
7,500 women were murdered last year in the americas
17,800 in asia
2,500 in Europe
300 in Oceana
from the UN report of 2021
“Violence against warnen and girls is the most pervasive human rights violation rooted in gender inequalityand discrimination, unequal power relations and harmful social norms. An estimated one in three warnen globally have been subjected to either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime.1 ”
Violence against pampered men who like to dress as women for a sexual kink does not begin to compare
abfab
………And there have been some in the queer community who have remained shockingly silent when it comes to trans rights, treating the issue as zero sum. Rather than express solidarity with the trans community, they see the fight for trans rights as an opening for homophobes to erase the hard-earned gains of gay men, lesbians and bisexuals. This is not a hill they chose to die on.
But if you are queer and silent on this issue, you are betraying your own cause. Silence won’t shield you. It will only embolden your adversaries and expose your cowardice.
It seems pretty obvious that the trans community is an attractive target for culture war bullies because it’s a small subset of the queer community and an even smaller subset of society as a whole.
According to a study last year by the Williams Institute at U.C.L.A., about 1.6 million people 13 or older in the United States, or 0.6 percent, identify as transgender.
Furthermore, in a 2021 survey, nearly 70 percent of Americans said they know a gay or lesbian person. Only about one in five said they know someone who is trans. That number is up but still small. That’s about the same number who said in response to a 2021 YouGov poll that they’ve seen a ghost.
It’s in this atmosphere of unfamiliarity and ignorance about who trans people are — and are not — that hysteria and cruelty flourish. The maleficent caricature that people conjure in their minds about trans people is one of a predator or “groomer” lurking in bathrooms and locker rooms. They imagine a Frankenstein’s monster in lipstick to justify their pitchforks.
The advocates I spoke to were, in a way, reeling from this onslaught but also optimistic that they would eventually prevail and that this backlash would wane.
The problem, though, is that once laws are on the books, it can be hard to remove them. Take, for example, H.I.V. criminalization laws and laws against same-sex marriage that still have not been repealed in some states.
-Charles M. Blow.
(This is the shit—this is how I feel but I could never write the way he does. Thank you Charles!)
Kangol2
Many of the gay people piling on trans people fail to realize that anti-gay bigots provoked the same hysteria, repeatedly, against gay people in the past, including after Stonewall. If you look at various points in US history during the last 50 years (i.e, post-Stonewall), you’ll see the anti-gay/anti-LGBTQ bigots using ANY excuse (gay rights ordinances, HIV/AIDS, gay parents attempting to adopt, out gay teachers in public schools, gays in the military, gay marriage, trans people in the military, etc.) as a starting point for hysteria, their fake “backlashes,” and attempts to harm LGBTQ people. They found a wedge with trans people and are trying to use to cut down the entire forest of gains the LGBTQ movements have gained. Trying to accommodate them and rationalize and justify homophobia and transphobia only emboldens them even more.
inbama
@Kangol2
I lived through Anita Bryant and taught school as a gay man while she spewed “They can’t procreate, so they have to recruit.” I don’t need lectures from liars like you about GAY history.
If you had even half a brain, you’d have learned from that experience not to stir those lies up again by going after kids – especially peddling irreversible procedures that have only been proven safe to relieve persistent gender dysphoria in adults. Mass-marketing gender incongruence, having children in daycare pick their pronouns – I’m sorry, but this is not liberation but a cult. If it makes YOU proud helping teenage girls to cut off their breasts and encourage to boys identify as “eunuchs” and undergo “gender nullification surgery”, then you can you effing own it. Not me.
abfab
Oh, those poor children.
abfab
Interesting…you sound more like Anita Bryant than she does.
inbama
@abfab
Poor children?
I’m not the one who wants to chemically castrate gay kids.
YOU are.
abfab
Um, we’re talking about your ”alleged” students.
mastik8
While I agree with you I think you missed a very salient point – this time the call is coming from inside the house. You think people criticizing the efforts of the trans community are against them when that is very much not the case. Many of us see a movement derailed and coopted by agendas that appear to be at odds with their own. Many of us are speaking up because we care and we don’t want this to go wrong. The trans community now appears to have an all or nothing approach to support and a lot of support that comes with caveats isn’t bothering as a result. I don’t see any bridges being built. I think they can do better. No one could say, and be believed, that the T in LGBT hasn’t been there since the beginning but in no way, shape, form or manner is this the T that many of us understood. Many would have been open to a discussion about the new definitions but as you’ll recall, this was presented to us as a fait accompli and as we’ve also discussed the support is all or nothing. Their response is usually blithe one liners that dismiss.
Seth
America is a capitalistic Hellscape and if you are not seen as a valued consumer you are not seen.
abfab
Change that, at least for yourself. Hurry, before you become invisable.
trell
I only intended to post a comment on the orlginal topic, but the comments of all of you do give me cause for a bit of alarm.
All of you who have posted and commented, regardless of your opinions, aren’t we forgetting that this is supposed to be about inclusivity and love overcoming hate?
There is so much bitching and internal squabbling amongst us (and not just on Queerty, but in general) that it is getting easier for those that have caused the upset, to start segregating and dividing us.
Back in the early years of Pride, there were no rainbows, corporate support or parties in the park. There were just core groups of a bunch of activists who were standing up for themselves, and protesting the current laws and public opinions. There was a solidarity, but also a real risk of persecution or violence, but still these people soldiered through, and now we have annual events.
Yes, it has changed and evolved over the years. We have adopted the rainbow flag, and our numbers have increased. Yes, we have parties and big corporate events, and yes, it’s not just LGBT+ who attend, but anyone supporting our cause.
Remember that?
The article does highlight the fact that Pride has become a bit bloated and corporate, but the fact that these businesses and corporations do want to support us, despite the current right-wing backlash from the political right out there in the US, should be evident that supporters are still out there. These corporations can do what they like. If they don’t want to support a cause because it will look bad for business, then let them. We can fight on without a few extra rainbow flags in the shop windows this June.
As for the rest of us, we have all been resting on our laurels. We have just been celebrating Pride without having much of a challenge (which has shown just how far we have come), but now, as society has regressed, with politicians practically declaring war on a rainbow flag, and other countries like Uganda where people are under more serious threats than ever, the fight is real, and the need to put aside our squabbles and represent a united front against discrimination, is more important than ever.
So Queerty commenters, regardless of your opinions or the embarrassing catty in-fighting, at least for a month, can you just put aside this crap, remember that we are all part of an amazing and diverse community, and be grateful for the fact that post-Stonewall, we have come a long way…but we still have a long way to. go?
Happy Pride all!!
London_resistance
The shitty rag Prick News here in the UK reports that “NHS to stop prescribing puberty blockers for children struggling with their gender identity”
Yay, a result.
“NHS England has said it is rescinding routine puberty blocker prescriptions after arguing that more evidence is needed about potential benefits and harms.
On Friday (9 June), the National Health Service released a report stating that it would only allow under-18s to receive puberty blockers in exceptional circumstances or under a study looking into their effects.
“Outside of a research setting, puberty suppressing hormones should not be routinely commissioned for children and adolescents,” a statement read.
Puberty blockers are sometimes administered to trans under-18s as a way to pause puberty development to help combat gender dysphoria.
Under the new rules, which the NHS described as an “interim policy”, the medication would only be accessible after further research outlines the impact they have on transgender adolescents.
The NHS website describes the effects of puberty blockers as “physically reversible”, but notes that “it is not known what the psychological effects may be.”
The website also claims that many cases of “gender variant behaviour” disappear after children hit puberty, despite a UK survey published in April finding that just 0.47 per cent of gender identity clinic patients feeling regret after transitioning.
The NHS announced in 2022 that it would close the Tavistock Centre’s Gender and Identity Development Service (GIDS) “
xanadude
The reason and the biggest PROBLEM is that the anti-gay sentiment is WORKING. If some of these companies don’t stand their ground, we will ALL lose.
Diplomat
Polls show support is progressively dwindling downward among both Rs and Ds regarding trans women bio males on women’s sports teams. The males in girls locker room shower debacle is going to get worse as time goes on. Trans arrogantly and with complete lack of diplomacy, just continue on continuing their surge, and when asked about such things, they clam with a silent FU bc they have zero defense. All this along with altered pronouns in schools causing an uproar well, you can see why LGBs have taken the hit. Gay people never made demands anywhere equal to these irrational blasts. Ever. And they will never survive common sense.
Corporations reducing support for the LGBT community has nothing to do with LGB people. It has only to do with the T trans community demanding the public change for their own desired pleasure.
Though I’d like to sing along with a kumbaya group effort, the reality of things hardly coincides.
abfab
Polls shmolls. Get a life—get out and live it and save your bullshit for your GOPTROLL tribe.
Diplomat
…… yes dear …….
LeBlevsez
Diplomat –
Never, ever?
The ‘scary gays in public showers’ trope is well trod ground. This nonsense has been around for generations, and you can still find these discussions on sites like reddit and quora. It’s pitiful that you want to help redirect this old fallacious argument to a new target.
Of course we gays never demanded the expansion of pronouns, which is such a huge, irrational blast.. We merely demanded the expansion of the definition of marriage, a teensy tiny adjustment.
The recent spate of anti-LGBT legislation undermine your “has nothing to do with LGB people” argument. Less than half of these laws are specifically aimed at Trans people. The majority are aimed right at “LGB people.”
Thank goodness for your common sense.