QTPOC workers still aren’t earning a living wage in your companies and still face disproportionate and overwhelming rates of discrimination in your workplaces. Davis and Sylvia Rivera, queer, trans people of color (QTPOC), who put Pride on the radar in the ’60s and ’70s, would be priced out of the corporate merchandise you’re selling today. I was the only panelist not affiliated with a corporation on the panel, and my talking points were similar to what they are today: This was precisely the question I was asked at a panel on branding and Pride several years ago. The heart of the debate is far more complex than “Does a rainbow logo do more good than harm?” The fundamental question that we should be considering, as companies and as consumers, is, “How should brands show what they stand for in an authentic, meaningful, and accountable way?”
Others take issue with “pinkwashing” - the use of LGBTQ+ symbolism to obfuscate or distract from human rights abuses and other injustices. Many members of the LGBTQ+ community are tired of “rainbow capitalism,” a term coined to describe how LGBTQ+ symbolism is being wielded by companies to heighten consumerism without leading to meaningful improvement for LGBTQ+ communities.
But this messaging, which might have felt revolutionary several years ago, seems to be losing people - even members of the LGBTQ+ community, the very people with whom these branding efforts are intending to show solidarity with. The word is used by everyone from diversity, equity, and inclusion practitioners to conscious consumers describing socially minded efforts undertaken by corporations that feel hypocritical, insincere, or otherwise miss the mark.Īs we continue through June, Pride month in the U.S., many of our social media feeds are filling up with rainbow logos (particularly, the “ Philly Pride” variant, with black and brown stripes) and “Love Is Love” messaging.
If I were to predict a word of the year for 2021, it’d be “performative.”