In anticipation of Pride Month coming in June and as a recognition of Etown Does PRIDE coming to an end soon, one trend that consumers typically expect to see that has been popularized in the past decade is the use of pride logos and flags in businesses to increase their revenue stream from LGBTQIA+ consumers.
This so-called “Rainbow Capitalism” rarely felt genuine to a lot of consumers, it still partially had good intentions behind it and a lot of people increased their shopping at businesses like Target, which sold pride merchandise designed by LGBTQIA+ people. Even if the companies changed their logos and removed their merchandise related to pride the second July hit, people felt seen and understood in a large-scale celebration of pride.
Due to the recent backlash, it is unclear if companies are going to elevate pride month as much as they have in the past. Target, which often featured pride at the forefront of their stores so that anyone walking in could see it immediately, faced criticism in the past two years. The backlash has not ended at only boycotting the stores supporting LGBTQIA+ individuals, but has escalated into threats and harm to the employees that work at the stores.
“What’s really troubling me about what’s happening more recently is violence directed towards, you know, in the case of Target, their employees. And also, we’re seeing the targeting of some of the marketing personnel who’ve been involved with these campaigns – those people getting doxxed,” Katherine Sender, a professor at Cornell University focusing on media and sexuality said to NPR reporter Ayesha Rascoe. “They’re getting harassed, you know? They’ve had death threats on social media and are really feeling very personally attacked. And I think that this is a different kind of dimension and a newer dimension of the backlash against LGBTQ marketing.”
Part of this increased tension is the acknowledgment of corporations using pride from politicians. That creates a stronger reaction from their supporters and increases the odds of action against these businesses.
“Target could have decided to stay out of the culture wars, instead it decided to wage war on a large share of its customer base,” Senator J.D Vance said on X. “I no longer shop at Target, and it seems many families are doing the same.”
Social media has also played an increased role as people post more often on sites like TikTok and Facebook that the pride month ads and displays at stores are indoctrinating children, specifically often regarding the increased presence of the transgender flags and individuals in pride celebrations.
While allies and members of the LGBTQIA+ community may wish to remain hopeful about the future of the celebration of pride, businesses’ allyships rely on what will make them the highest profit margin in that period. That makes it frail to the current political state of the U.S. Large businesses are also likely to see the response Target has garnered over the past two years and pull back their own pride efforts to avoid their stock dropping and increased negative conversation around their business.
This flimsy support may bring down the success of Rainbow Capitalism even among those who initially supported it and want increased representation all year round. Consumers who support the LGBTQIA+ community will be forced to face the fact that corporations cannot stand with them during tumultuous times and therefore do not deserve to stand with them at all.
However, pride month never has and never will require large corporations’ support. All it requires is the community to stand together, which it will continue to do with or without rainbow logos.
