It's Pride month, and as usual the parades will be marked by corporate floats and contingents sporting rainbow flags. Mike Blasenstein wonders if that level of support from business is enough.
When I came out, being gay was a lot more controversial than it is now, but even back then companies smelled an audience so appreciative of the slightest recognition that we responded with staunch consumer loyalty.
Very often that recognition took the form of a rainbow somewhere in their ads, which the community would immediately notice, with LGBTQ media even running news stories about it. And very often those stories would be followed up by others detailing the public backlash the company faced in return for its courage.
That rainbow meant a lot back then. But as we’ve become more embraced in society, supporting the LGBTQ community has become “safer” for businesses. The only risk for them now is missing out on queer dollars, which they evidently think they can rake in simply by making a rainbow version of their corporate logo, flying a rainbow flag from their corporate buildings, draping corporate parade floats in rainbow bunting and tossing out corporate rainbow swag to the crowd.
But what do they do the rest of the year? Do they support the Equality Act, which would add LGBTQ rights to the Civil Rights Act of 1964? Have they spoken out against the government’s persecution of transgender people? Do they oppose the so-called “religious liberty” laws that allow businesses to turn away LGBTQ customers? Have they even updated their forms to accommodate non-binary genders?