So I’m going to stir the pot today and post about what can be a hot topic for people; that is businesses using Pride as a means to show that they are a “woke” business.
It kills me to use the word “woke” as it’s traditionally a word you would associate with right wing nut jobs, but I think it’s very appropriate in this context because it is very apt.
So for those that don’t know, modern Pride has its basis in the Stonewall Riots in New York City in June/July 1969 indeed it was trans women of colour who lit the metaphorical flames of justice. This can also be seen in Australia’s own Mardi Gras with the original group of marchers coming together to protest the police persecution in 1978. While this is only a synopsis and doesn’t take into account the nuances of both situations, it is evidence of the anti police, anti capitalist system of society that we’re currently in.
This is also shown in the action of United Kingdom activists in 1984/1985 when everyone’s “favourite” nutter Margaret Thatcher went after the miners; the Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) stood with their comrades to raise money for their working class brethren to survive, none of which Thatcher wanted. Thatcher also went on to introduce the anti gay Section 28 legislation- legislation so disgusting in attempts to straight wash people to confirming to the good old white Christian heteronormative lifestyle. In fact; here’s a quote of that bigoted legislation;
28 Prohibition on promoting homosexuality by teaching or by publishing material.
(1)The following section shall be inserted after section 2 of the M1Local Government Act 1986 (prohibition of political publicity)—
“2AProhibition on promoting homosexuality by teaching or by publishing material.
(1)A local authority shall not—
(a)intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality;
(b)promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship.
(2)Nothing in subsection (1) above shall be taken to prohibit the doing of anything for the purpose of treating or preventing the spread of disease.
(3)In any proceedings in connection with the application of this section a court shall draw such inferences as to the intention of the local authority as may reasonably be drawn from the evidence before it.
(4)In subsection (1)(b) above “maintained school” means,—
(a)in England and Wales, a county school, voluntary school, nursery school or special school, within the meaning of the Education Act 1944; and
(b)in Scotland, a public school, nursery school or special school, within the meaning of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980.”
(2)This section shall come into force at the end of the period of two months beginning with the day on which this Act is passed.
Source- https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/9/section/28/1991-02-01
Though I’m slightly digressing, the above quote of the horrible Thatcherite era piece of legislation is prime example of how political “gay rights” has been; that right wing nut jobs think that homosexuality is a “lifestyle choice” is nothing more then a steaming pile of boulderdash and should be condemned for the politcalisation of something that is nothing more then the way people are born.
This leads back to the topic of this post that is the corporatisation of Pride; something which really struck me just recently.
For the first time in about three or four years, I managed to attend the Midsumma Carnival Day this year [2020] in the Alexandra Gardens and it really struck me how many companies are desperate to appear down with the gays.
The biggest issue was the Liberal Party having a stall there- I mean come on, this is the same political party that decided to deign us with the plebiscite vote just to see if we were to be allowed basic human rights (hello old friend protest!) I mean who in their right mind would allow the presence of such crazy people who think it’s OK to vote on peoples civil rights; there’s not enough words in my vocabulary to express the shittyness that was that!
Not surprising they were hidden away ear the back of the stall area was it!
But walking along, hidden among gems such as family planning stalls and the ABC, you had big business such as NAB, Telstra, Australia Post, VicPol (another issue for another blog post!) and it really made me think where’s the support during the year?
The answer is there is no support- they only come out with their Pride modified logos for about a month around the time of Pride, only for it to disappear for another 12 months or when the gays are getting a bashing by some bigoted homophobe! If you were truly LGBT friendly, make Pride a thing that is shown all year around not when it’s the flavour of the month!
At the end of the day, it’s time for people to remember that people like Mark Ashton in the 1980s and all those who fought before us to get our rights and put their money where their mouth is and go back to our roots- it’s time to ban big companies from their token efforts of “supporting” the LGBT community and it’s time to bring the fight back- we must continue to fight for our brothers and sisters and wherever a voice is getting lost, we must be there to support them and yell in one voice we will not be forgotten or be written off- we’re here for the long haul and we will fight to our dying days for a better system and society where we’re all truly equal!