Hello.
Months before June, companies' marketing calendars remind them to start working on their Pride campaigns: the graphic design department decorates logos and slogans with colourful rainbows; the copywriting department writes jingles and puns with queer lingo, and the finance department estimates how much profit the campaign is forecasted to generate. By the time Pride month comes around, the corporate world explodes in a colourful carnival of pro-LGBTQ+ advertisements, campaigns and rebrandings. What was once a civil rights protest and riot to demand equal rights has become part of the corporate pipeline. Nevertheless, Pride provides companies with the opportunity to make their values clear, show support for their LGBTQ+ employees and, in the best cases, use their platforms to demand social change.
Various companies across the globe are seeking to build a better experience for their people to promote loyalty, minimize turnover and drive better engagement. As part of these efforts, companies are empowering individuals to be their true selves. With the celebration of Pride Month, most employers have been considering how to better support members of the LGBTQ+ community in their workforce during a time of growing adversity for this group. When June 1 arrived, companies like Facebook and Walmart rolled out shelves of colourful merchandise, flooded their social media pages with rainbows and aired compassionate commercials.
As June arrives, corporations try really hard to make sure their consumers knew how much they supported the LGBTQ+ community. But the catch is, that now that the Pride month is over, corporations will put their shelves of merchandise on clearance, cleanse their social media pages of rainbows and no longer air compassionate commercials. Historically, corporate support seems to mostly vanish on July 1, leaving LGBTQ+ individuals and allies wondering if a company really cares about the community after Pride Month ends, or if it is just participating in rainbow washing.
Now, question is, what is Rainbow Washing? Rainbow washing is aesthetic support, and it's about marketability and profit. The key part is that some corporations are actively giving support to anti-queer politicians, legislators, lobbyists and laws while at the same time claiming to be allies. At the surface level, a company's rainbow logo indicates that it is an ally of the LGBTQ+ community. Rainbow washing isn't the kind of thing that you can Google in five seconds. It takes a bit of energy and time. There are several behind-the-scenes ways a corporation could be harming the LGBTQ+ community. The LGBTQ+ community has made tremendous progress in the fight to secure the same workplace rights as other colleagues. Employers and co-workers can prevent future erosion of the basic human rights everyone deserves by being more resolute in their support and actions.
Rainbow washing strips Pride Month of its political power. Pride has always been political because the month is not only a celebration but a time to defend the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals. When Pride is stripped of its political power, then queer people are just there for celebration or as a culture to appropriate because it's fun and looks pretty. The voices of queer people that are actually suffering violence or being discriminated against aren't actually heard because Pride isn't supposed to only be fun and pretty. Let's keep in mind and not forget that the first-ever Pride was a riot, and rainbow washing weakens the power of the origin. It gives corporations the opportunity to dilute the message of Pride and remove its revolutionary teeth. Rainbow washing harms the legitimacy of Pride Month in the eyes of those who are unsupportive of the LGBTQ+ community. Most conservatives aren't going to have their minds changed by whether or not corporations support queer people and it is likely to draw more reactionary anger because they see it as proof that queer people are influencing the public. But at the same time, I believe thatrainbow washing isn't all that bad, though. Earlier, companies would not do business with LGBTQ+ individuals and would turn them away. Today, they adorn rainbows. It is a sign that the acceptance of queer existence is fundamentally different than it was 10, 15 or 20 years ago. Even though slapping a rainbow on one's company logo is not nearly enough, we must not completely throw out the idea that changing a logo to a rainbow isn't necessarily a bad thing.
While the exploitation of the LGBTQ+ community is a cause for anger within parts of the community, corporate support is better than what it used to be. Corporations finding it more profitable to voice public support for the queer community is not necessarily a bad thing. While it makes sense for companies to gain monetary profit, the problem is when it takes away from LGBTQ+ voices. Imagine if a friend said: We celebrated your birthday, so now I'm going to ignore you for the rest of the year. Pride month or moreover the notion of being an ally for the LGBTQ+ community and fighting for civil rights must go all year round and not for just a month or a day.
So, if the primary outcome of Pride Month is that in June we go to a parade, buy a rainbow-labelled product or pick up a cute T-shirt, these events have been stripped of much of their power. What companies and society need to spark is a year-round fight for LGBTQ+ people's well-being, from healthcare to housing security to nondiscrimination—both within corporations and on an individual level.
Until next time, take care.
Paati
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