By: Noeka Nimmervoll, Staff Writer
Taking a stand on certain issues is a useful tactic for businesses to connect with their consumers. For example, the recent Canada-US trade war has motivated Canadian companies to advertise using the “Buy Canadian” trend. Unsurprisingly, companies capitalize on their consumer base’s desire for their purchases by reflecting consumers’ values to increase their market profit. One of the communities that is targeted for profit maximization is the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. Companies plaster colourful flags for the purposes of virtue-signalling, otherwise known as rainbow capitalism, every June.
Trends in the public sphere of the 2010s were increasingly accepting of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, largely due to the growing visibility of 2SLGBTQIA+ people in media. It seemed that, due to the increase in people supporting the community, companies followed suit, shifting their marketing to fit the values of the mainstream consumer base. This practice has provided us with the Skittles’ “only #OneRainbow matters” campaign, and brands like Starbucks pumping out pride merch with gusto. Still, this is seen as antithetical to Pride by many in the queer and trans community, since corporations thematically profit off the exploitation of working class people, which will always marginalize queer and trans people disproportionately.
Additionally, a company should be more than rainbow-coloured for a month to be considered an ally to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. Discrimination in the workplace remains a prevalent problem for queer and gender diverse people: In fact, about 73% of 2SLGBTQIA+ people experience harassment and violence due to their gender identity or sexuality at work at some point in their career, according to the Canadian Labour Congress. If your company is tolerant of anti-trans talk in the coffee room but will sponsor your city’s pride parade for a prime spot, that’s not an ally: that’s an opportunist. If you have to hide your gender identity from your bosses and/or coworkers to avoid discrimination, that is not a welcoming environment.
Where are these performative corporations this year, though, when the pride flag should be waving in our face at every commercial break, bus stop ad, and banking login page? This year has seen a massive pullback on Pride Month’s commodification, with companies that were such avid supporters in the past. Large corporate sponsors, like Anheuser-Busch, are walking away from funding pride parades. Companies like Skittles are choosing to quietly donate to GLAAD instead of running their usual no-rainbow campaigns. Is it no longer profitable to be a performative ally?
If your company is tolerant of anti-trans talk in the coffee room but will sponsor your city’s Pride Parade for a prime spot, that’s not an ally: that’s an opportunist.
One thing that a corporation will never be is a true advocate. The pattern is painfully familiar: a brand embraces diversity when it’s profitable, only to retreat the moment their bottom line is threatened. Recently, this retreat came at full display when Pride Vancouver experienced a considerable pull back of support by major corporations. Pride Vancouver isn’t the only one confronting a world of disappearing allyships, Pride Toronto, is among many others across the country, experiencing such disengagement. Companies, such as Google and Home Depot, have dropped their donations without citing a reason. This isn’t surprising considering both of those companies’ pasts in exhibiting anti-2SLGBTQIA+ stances. Where Google actively censors 2SLGBTQIA+ content across its platforms, and Home Depot donates to anti-2SLGBTQIA+ legislators.
Despite the progress made in 2SLGBTQIA+ rights and visibility, we are learning first hand that political trends cycle. We are experiencing a vocal political shift to the right, even among the younger generation. Young people are becoming increasingly conservative, driving polls to favour the likes of Trump and Poilievre. With vocal outcry against trans rights to bathrooms and gender-affirming care, leading the discriminatory discourse.
So what does this mean? No more performative allyship? For now. There’s a chance that some companies will be back though, cloying for attention with neon Target shirts to get the festival queers back in their corner. Once the social trends favour the left of the political spectrum again, they’ll be a valuable market to corporations once again. At least now, we are able to see which companies, such as Ben and Jerry’s, can hold their ground, when the right-wing gets to rioting — with their not-so-subtle social media posts telling us where their values lie.
Being an ally is not something that can be confined to the month of June, or when the economy is strong enough to handle a little activism. Pride is not something to be commodified, it is a display of strength, empowerment, and love. Even though corporations are backing out of pride for selfish reasons, Pride Month is better off without corporations inserting themselves in a space that isn’t about them. The presence of corporations at pride parades has homogenized the nature of a rich and diverse community that overarchingly values grassroots efforts, loyalty, and identity. We always knew that companies were just hopping on the bandwagon. Now we’ve got the proof in the pudding.
