Welcome to #TransTuesday! It’s Pride month, so that means we’re gonna talk about Target, and Dylan Mulvaney/Bud Light, and the Los Angeles Dodgers, and: RAINBOW CAPITALISM.
If you’re unsure exactly what Rainbow Capitalism is, or why it upsets so many people, this is the thread for you. We have evidence galore! But what it basically amounts to is corporations posting rainbow logos and selling queer merch while otherwise stabbing us in the back.
On the surface, you’d maybe think the rainbow/Pride merch isn’t a bad thing. Any group being catered to by a corporation means they’ve realized there’s money to be made from that group, and that’s worth more to them than the blowback from bigots who will complain. Theoretically.
So in that respect (and that respect ONLY) you can see it as a good thing, or at least a sign that some societal acceptance is changing for the better. No corporation in the 1980s was selling rainbow merch or even claiming to support queer people, right? Progress.
And if that’s ALL that it was, then it wouldn’t be so bad. It’d be just another sign of the rampant commercialization and commodification of EVERYTHING in our capitalist society.
And I admit it’s nice to have merch with the trans flag on it. I have a shirt with the Star Trek delta/trans flag combo that means SO MUCH to me, because it’s OFFICIAL. But it’s more than just blowing smoke because Trek has been actually featuring non-cis characters!
Me with long curly hair and curly bangs, in pink-framed glasses with eyeliner and pink lipstick, in a navy blue t-shirt that has the Star Trek delta on it (the inside of the delta is filled with the trans flag). My left hand is giving the Vulcan live long and prosper salute, and my black leather cuff watch is visible on my left wrist.
I think they could still do more, and I don’t think they’ve always gotten it perfect, but there’s actual, real progress and it means the world to me and a lot of other trans and non-binary folks. And I love my goofy tank top with a cat wearing pride flag sunglasses, as ludicrous as it is.
Me with long curly bangs and long curly hair (I know I always describe it the same but it’s my hair what do you want from me), in blue-framed glasses, in blue eyeshadow and dark eyeliner and red lipstick and red nail polish, in a blue tank top with a white cat head on the front. The cat wears sunglasses and the lenses show the pride flag, which is super weird and is thus great.
But it’s not all fun t-shirts and mugs and socks and pajamas. A lot of the time there’s sadly something much more sinister going on.
There are the even more naked grabs for queer dollars by companies who want to have the appearance of supporting us while not even having the guts to MENTION WHO IT IS THEY’RE SUPPORTING.
A tweet from @AudioJillian (the Tillys Trans Tuesdays podcast sound mixer) that reads: Our station is actually running Price promos! THey say wonderful sentiments like “All means Y’all” and “whatever flag you fly or what color your stripes are.” You know what they don’t say? ANYTHING ABOUT GAY OR QUEER LISTENERS.
And sometimes, a corporation tries to get in on the action without even realizing what they’re doing, or possibly implying, as this ad from Burger King Austria does. Tops and bottoms, huh? Sure.
An add from Burger King Austria showing two Whoppers in front of a rainbow, the one on the left has two top buns and the one on the right has two bottom buns. Text at the top reads “Time to be proud.” and text on the bottom reads “Pride Whopper” but the E in Whopper is replaced with a rainbow flag.
So okay, maybe that’s not great (while also being kinda unintentionally funny), but what’s the harm in it? Especially from a company that wants to support queer causes, right? From a company that even trolled known hatemongers Chick-fil-A about it?
In that article you’ll find mention of some of Burger King’s past treatment of queer employees and issues, and now we’re starting to get to the heart of the matter.
There’s also this case where a trans employee of theirs DIED after being forced to work with covid, and the manager BLAMED IT ON HER HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY. And this happened HERE IN CALIFORNIA of all places!
I’ve searched and searched, and while I can find statements from Burger King regarding the death and covid policies, I haven’t been able to find anything from them taking a stand and refuting the bigoted manager who blamed it on HRT.
Maybe it’s out there and I’ve missed it, but if you ARE pro-queer (and even if you just cynically want to be SEEN that way for our delicious queer cash), wouldn’t you BLANKET that statement everywhere, disavowing that manager’s words? It should be easy to find!
Yet it’s not difficult to believe that it might not even exist at all, because in our society this happens all the time. Companies will say they support us, then threaten to take away our gender-affirming care if we dare to support unionization.
And it’s more than a one-time thing for Starbucks. So much so it almost seems like company policy!
Companies will say they support us, then fire us for simply wanting the same respect that every cisgender and heterosexual person at the company gets by default.
Look at all these companies with rainbow logos who supported the politicians who enacted Florida’s “don’t say gay” bigotry. That’s not allyship!
An image showing corporate pride/rainbow logos and how much each company has donated to supporters of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill: Charter Communications ($229000), Draft Kings ($50000), PepsiCo ($35000), AT&T ($102500), Comcast NBCUniversal ($92000), Anheuser-Busch ($35000), Walgreens ($31500), Zillow ($20000), Amazon ($7500). Text reads, “Contributions from 1/1/2020 to 2/15/2022 to bill sponsors, legislators who votes for the bill in committee, Speaker of the Florida House Chris Sprowls, and Governor Ron DeSantis. Source: Florida Campaign Finance.”
It’s so bad you can make jokes about it with notably evil fictional companies.
An image reading-
Nobody:
Corporations during June: (a collection of logos from evil companies in fiction, in rainbow colors, including, Umbrella Corporation, UAC Union Aerospace, Silver Shamrock Novelties, Skynet, OCP, Shinra Corporation, RR, Lexcorp, inGen, Weyland-Yutani Corp, Mishima Zaibatsu, Abstergo Industries, Black Mesa Research Facility, Aperture Laboratories, Mann Co., SCP Foundation, Mom’s Friendly Robot Company, and Virtucon.
Even our governments will light themselves in Pride colors…
While they’re in the middle of taking our rights away and forcing invasive GENITAL CHECKS on CHILDREN.
If you want some info on companies with rainbow logos, who claim to support us and want our money, yet will turn around and donate to politicians who are taking our rights away, here you go.
And some more…
Are there any companies getting it right? Here’s a list of some that may actually be pro-LGBTQIA2S+.
Note the last one on that list is Ulta. I get a lot of makeup and hair products from them, so I’m on their marketing emails (I get too much email but I want the sale notices and discounts, IT’S A REAL DILEMMA).
Anyway, this one I experienced personally. Imagine my utter shock and (pleasant) surprise when this email came in:
A very (VERY) long vertical image showing a marketing email from Ultra for Pride. There are photos of three people of varying races and genders, and images of various makeup products interspersed throughout. Text reads:
With Pride. Whoever you are. Whoever you Love. However you identify. We’re proud to celebrate and spotlight the LGBTQ+ community, this month and beyond. This week, get to know organizations making a difference, and the brands that support them.
The Trevor Project. Creating a safer, more inclusive world through crisis intervention for LGBTQ+ youth, plus critical research and advocacy. Brands that donate: Maybelline, Kiss, OPI, Madison Reed and L.A. Girl.
The Pride Foundation. Building a better, safer, more equitable world through community organizing and student support. Brands that donate: L.A. Girl.
Los Angeles LGBT Center. Caring for the community in Los Angeles and beyond with health and social services, housing, education and advocacy, and more. Brands that donate: NYX Professional Makeup.
Ali Forney Center. Transforming lives by protecting LGBTQ+ youth from homelessness, empowering them with tools to live independently. Brands that donate: L’Oreal.
Triangle Community Center. The leading provider of programs and resources to nurture and support LGBTQ+ residents of Fairfield County. Brands that donate: Eyelure.
G.L.A.A.D. Founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of the community, G.L.A.A.D. works through media to share stories that accelerate acceptance. Brands that donate: Sally Hansen.
The Point Foundation. Empowering LGBTQ+ students to achieve their full academic and leadership potential through financial aid and scholarships. Brands that donate: Scunci.
True Colors United. Striving to end homelessness in the queer community, fueled by the belief that housing in a human right. Brands that donate: Manic Panic.
I know that’s a weird size, but I wanted to include it all. Hopefully you can zoom in to see it. It shows brands that Ulta sells, and which LGBTQIA+ organizations those companies donate to and support. That feels much closer to something real!
Of course you should still do your due diligence and check who else those companies may donate to. Ulta has seemingly donated very little to politicians, and much moreso to democratic ones, but ANY dollars supporting republican PACs isn’t great.
But it’s only $1500 total, came from individuals and not the company itself, and is utterly obliterated by the amount given in support of democratic candidates who are much more likely to support queer causes, so that might be as good as it gets in this world.
And there was of course the whole recent fiasco with trans woman Dylan Mulvaney doing an ad for Bud Light that made bigoted conservatives LOSE THEIR ENTIRE MINDS.
And as soon as that happened… the company walked back their support of her to appeal to the bigots who got offended at a trans woman existing. And of course Anheuser-Busch is actually a HUGE donor to the Republicans. So they obviously don’t care about queer people at all.
And even more recently, there was the issue with the Los Angeles Dodgers. If you’re not aware, the team was going to have a Pride night, as many sports teams do. A night to celebrate their queer fans during one of the games. Seems like a good thing, right?
But then this happened. (They deleted the tweet, but I got a screencap)
A tweet from the Los Angeles Dodgers that reads: In the spirit of unity, the Los Angeles Dodgers are proud to host our 10th annual LGBTQ+ Pride Night on June 16th. This event has become a meaningful tradition, highlighting not only the diversity and resilience within our fanbase, but also the impactful work of extraordinary community groups. This year, as part of a full night of programming, we invited a number of groups to join us. We are now aware that our inclusion of one group in particular – The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence – in this year’s Pride Night has been the source of some controversy. Given the strong feelings of people who have been offended by the sisters inclusion in our evening, and in an effort not to distract from the great benefits that we have seen over the years of Pride Night, we are deciding to remove them from this vear’s group of honorees.
So what the hell is going on here? From their own website, here’s who the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are: “The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are a leading-edge Order of queer and trans nuns. We believe all people have a right to express their unique joy and beauty.
“Since our first appearance in San Francisco on Easter Sunday, 1979, the Sisters have devoted ourselves to community service, ministry and outreach to those on the edges, and to promoting human rights, respect for diversity and spiritual enlightenment.
“We use humor and irreverent wit to expose the forces of bigotry, complacency and guilt that chain the human spirit.”
They’re a charitable organization that’s been around for over 40 years, made up up queer people WHO EXPOSE AND LAUGH AT BIGOTRY to make political statements. They were there supporting the community through the AIDS crisis when we were abandoned by everyone else.
In fact, the Dodgers just gave the LA chapter of the Nuns an award for their twenty-seven years of charitable service to the city. AND THEN DISINVITED THEM FROM PRIDE NIGHT WHEN BIGOTS COMPLAINED THAT THE NUNS MAKE FUN OF BIGOTS.
You can visit lasisters.org to learn all about them and their mission of compassion and acceptance for everyone, and how their goal is to support the queer community and spread our joy. You can read their statement on this train wreck there, too.
People like thirsty sycophant MARCO RUBIO, from ultra-fascist Florida, complained that the nuns mocked Catholics with a “lewd imitation” of nuns. And let’s unpack that a little. Because it’s a continuation of the “all queerness is inherently sexual” bullshit the Republicans keep spewing.
“We can’t have a gay kiss in media even though hetero kisses are everywhere! Queer people are pedophiles!” Florida just made it a crime for trans people to use public bathrooms under the guise that all trans women are sex offenders BY DEFAULT. This is that exact same bullshit.
Drag and trans people are seen as inherently sexual and awful simply by existing. Further, IMITATIONS OF NUNS is free speech protected by the first amendment! There’s literally NOTHING wrong with or illegal about it.
But religious bigots get their undies in a bunch every single time they’re called on their bigotry, and those religious bigots who are politicians complained and the Dodgers INSTANTLY folded. Not only that…
They DARED to do it while talking about “unity” and “diversity” and “the impactful work of community groups,” thereby implying that the sisters are the antithesis of all of that. THIS IS THEM SAYING “QUEERNESS IS ONLY OKAY IF THE BIGOTS AGREE WITH IT.”
HEAVEN FORBID WE UPSET THE BIGOTS BY CALLING OUT THEIR BIGOTRY.
As we’ve talked about many times in Trans Tuesdays, there is no “both sides.” You either believe in equality and human rights, or you don’t. The other side of that IS LITERAL BIGOTS AND NAZIS. And the Dodgers said, “well the bigots have some good points…”
Which thereby tells EVERY SINGLE QUEER PERSON that they’re not welcome there. And there you see the Dodgers’ rainbow capitalism laid bare: they only wanted our dollars, they only wanted to APPEAR supportive. In reality, they don’t give two shits about us.
However, after a LOT of outcry, and many big queer organizations pulling out of the Dodgers’ Pride Night in protest, they thankfully reversed course.
A new statement from the LA Dodgers (with rainbow logo! natch) that reads: After much thoughtful feedback from our diverse communities, honest conversations within the Los Angeles Dodgers organization and generous discussions with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the Los Angeles Dodgers would like to offer our sincerest apologies to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, members of the LGBTQ+ community and their friends and families.
We have asked the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to take their place on the field at our 10th annual LGBTQ+ Pride Night on June 16th. We are pleased to share that they have agreed to receive the gratitude of our collective communities for the lifesaving work that they have done tirelessly for decades.
In the weeks ahead, we will continue to work with our LGBTQ+ partners to better educate ourselves, find ways to strengthen the ties that bind and use our platform to support all of our fans who make up the diversity of the Dodgers family.
Thankfully public pressure got them to reverse that terrible decision, but the ending of the new statement is key. They need to work WITH the queer community on these things, all companies do. You can’t just be reactionary babies every time a bigot throws a fit.
And then there’s the whole issue of Target removing pride items based on protests from bigots.
And this wasn’t even SOLELY corporate greed, because their Pride collection featured items from indie queer creators! Which is exactly how it should be, so there’s money going TO queer people and it’s helping people find their work.
But then that merch is pulled, which hurts the very people you’re trying to help (both the creators and those who’d like to purchase the items to support them).
So this one is really tough, because queer people want (and deserve) products that reflect who we are, and Target does donate to both political parties, they’ve also donated to those taking our rights away. Like Trump!
And this is a really tough situation on the surface, because Target wants to (and has an obligation to) protect their employees, especially those who are queer and/or trans. But they also have an obligation to not abandon those marginalized voices they were spotlighting.
In the past they faced backlash over masking policies… and stood firm. In the past they face bigoted backlash for having an inclusive bathroom policy and letting trans people use their true names on nametags, even if it hadn’t been legally changed yet.
And by all accounts I could find, they respected employees’ pronouns. And when the bigots complained about all of that, still they stood firm. They didn’t cave. But now they have. And thus the bigots are emboldened.
If you show them their violence and terrorism works, THEY WILL KEEP DOING IT. You do not cave to this crap, all that does is justify it in the heads of the people who get enraged at rainbow merchandise not targeted at them, like some emotionally stunted babies.
I also want to remind you they are a MEGA CORPORATION WITH MANY RESOURCES. They need to sue the violent bigots into the ground with all their resources, and then guess what? It will STOP, and queer people will be protected. But no, they just caved. And it’s sickening.
But this of course brings us to “is there any ethical consumption in a capitalist society?” To which the answer is probably no and the best we can do is try to minimize the damage with our purchases while trying to effect painfully slow system-wide change.
And I guess the point I’m making is to just know where your dollars are going, but also that corporations CANNOT (well, “should” not, because clearly they CAN) say they support us while donating to people/organizations that want to take our rights away.
This ties in directly with my Trans Tuesday on TRANS POLITICS, wherein I explain how you CANNOT vote for people who want to harm us and claim you are an ally, a friend, or even family. You do not truly love us or care about someone you’d vote to take rights away from.
Oh I hear you say YOU would never vote to take our rights away, but if you vote for politicians who do, I’m sorry to tell you that’s the exact same thing. You might as well be signing trans healthcare bans yourself for all the harm you’re doing.
If you go to Chick-fil-A, you are giving them money they WILL use to hurt us. It doesn’t matter if you donate the same amount you spent to a pro-queer org. They don’t cancel each other out, you’re ENABLING THEIR BIGOTRY AND HELPING THEM HARM US.
They’ve changed who they donate to, but don’t say they won’t resume donating to bigotry again in the future soooo…
If you’re interested, Matrix Resurrections also deals with this somewhat, though also with the erasure/co-opting of trans voices. But that’s not an entirely unrelated topic, because what are these companies doing if not claiming to be with us while not listening to us?
And again, all of my Matrix trans allegories threads got me a book deal and you can get it now in hardcover, paperback, digital, and audiobook (read by me)!
So which corporations should be celebrating Pride? You can’t sum it up better than this.
A tweet from Erin Reed, @ErinInTheMorn, that reads: Corporate DEI team: thinking of painting your logo rainbow? DON’T, unless your company has:
– Pulled out of a state with anti-trans laws if applicable.
– Donated to 0 anti-LGBTQ politicians.
– Covers ALL trans healthcare – including FFS/Hair removal/top surgery
Corporations need to NOT support politicians/causes that hurt us, they need to offer full trans healthcare coverage as part of their health insurance package, they need to use their pull to fight for us politically.
Queer people are human beings who deserve equality, not inanimate pawns meant to increase your wealth.
If all you want is our money, and don’t support us getting equal rights?
Keep our names out of your mouth.
Tilly Bridges, end transmission.
tillysbridges@gmail.com