Why The Gay Community Accepts Prejudice 11 Moths a Yr From Sponsors?
Pride or Prejudice?
Here’s a disturbing question. If a company or industry said they can only invest in the black community in February, and they feel free to ignore that community the rest of the year, would that be racist? Of course, it would be. Why, then, does the queer community support companies that only pull out their rainbow flavored logos, Pride floats and ad placements in the local gay magazines as a PR stunt for Pride Month?
Is that homophobic?
Forever grateful to the bold
The question above will ruffle the feathers on the boas that many companies wear annually during the month of June. To be clear, without the pride that many companies have shown during the month of June over the years, the queer community wouldn’t have made the progress that it has seen accelerate over the past two decades. On behalf of the queer community, we’re grateful for the support. I have marched beside companies like Target, USBank, Kroger, Nissan and many more each year at Pride in Denver.
If it weren’t for the support of companies like the hundreds that signed on to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013, numerous queer relationships might not be recognized by the federal government today. It’s only because these companies that many of us have some legal protections. Likewise, we’ve joined our straight brothers and sisters in taking advantage of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax benefits that we’ve been paying into all our lives but were denied the benefits until 2015.
At the same time, where are many LGBTQ supportive companies the other eleven months of the year? LGBTQ people exist 365 days of the year. #WeExist365
Corporate America’s gay-for-pay secret
In the gay porn industry, there’s a term used, “gay-for-pay,” that refers to straight men who perform “gay” sex acts for higher pay than they’d earn doing straight porn. Basically, these actors will do what they must for the money.
Tying the two points above together, does much of corporate America go gay-for-pay in June to lure the $917 billion in estimated purchasing power of the queer community? Are we getting a nod of the cap simply because it makes financial sense but July through May we’re expunged from the business model?
July through May we’re segregated by many American businesses as undesirables in most commercials and in retirement literature of the country’s biggest brokerage firms. Our families are hidden, and our youth are pitched to the streets by shameful parents who see leading companies of the world doing the same to us year-round.
LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are all rainbows, the international symbol for the queer community, in June. By July, it’s as if the sunshine was packed away like a Christmas tree only to be brought out next year.
Why do companies think that’s okay and why does the queer community tolerate this?
Recently on Instagram, Dominique Jackson, the trans model and actress currently appearing on the hit FX show Pose, calls out a big brand for using her. She was asked by this popular, multi-billion-dollar brand to promote and take part in an event during June and was offered no compensation.
Again, has corporate America adopted a gay-for-pay model? We’re useful as product poster children during June but useless the rest of the year.
What real support looks like today
This may seem harsh, and deservedly so, but there are champions of my queer community. There are companies that haven’t gone gay-for-pay and that truly and consistently support the LGBTQ community. It’s just that there are too many companies that use Pride as a PR move, that reach out to the likes of Dominque Jackson and the Debt Free Guys™ and the Queer Money™ podcast for free exposure to win the affinity of the queer community and aren’t there year-round.
One company who continually supports the LGBTQ community is USBank, which has committed to helping the local LGBT centers where the employees can actively support them with boots on the group. In addition, Nissan and Prudential are at Pride parades across the U.S. every year and also sponsor the NAGAAA softball league with financial support and education. There’s American Airlines that is one of the presenting sponsors of the 2018 NGLCC International Business & Leadership Conference, which promotes and educates LGBTQ small business owners, connecting them with companies that desire a diverse supplier network. Finally, there are companies like McKinsey & Company that received The Trevor Project’s distinguished 20/20 Visionary Award because, as a company, it supports queer employees and works with The Trevor Project all year because they believe that suicide should never be the solution to being LGBT.
It’s companies like these that have earned the right to paint their logos a rainbow hue in June. They’re the ones that are as proud of our community as they are of the rest of their customers. They’re not scared of shareholders or customer backlash for showing their pride all year long. These are the companies that deserve access to our $971 billion because they see us as equal. They see us as Americans. They see us as humans.
If you believe that companies should treat all members of the LGBT community as equal all year long, click below and share the tweet:
Comments
Frederick!