Gay Pri Month fuels a rporate backlash that hurts gay rights

Contents:

• SEND HUNTER BIN IRS WHISTLEBLOWER INTIFIED AS GAY DEMOCRAT
• JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
• TIRED GAY SUCCUMBS TO DIX 200 METERS

SEND HUNTER BIN IRS WHISTLEBLOWER INTIFIED AS GAY DEMOCRAT

More than 50 years after the famo Stonewall rts, the only Pri Month tradn more predictable than big cy paras June are the perennial plats about the “modifitn” of the gay rights movement. The days, the month often featur rporatns and nsumer brands participatg the celebratns, wh bright rabow packagg and gay-themed ems for sale. Claimg that a gay person needs to vote for a certa party or suate themselv on a certa pot of the iologil spectm is — to e some of today’s pop psychology terms — gatekeepg and gaslightg.

JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU

Crics often sist that rporatns’ mment to gay pri is shallow and self-servg, or that rabow-themed merchandise and advertisg durg June end up tokenizg rather than celebratg the muny.

Buyg a T-shirt wh the phrase “Love Is Not a Crime” om Target won’t, on s own, change the world or end anti-gay discrimatn. Though there are historil nnectns between the gay rights movement and opposg palism, ’s a mistake for the LGBTQ muny today to embrace an anti-rporate attu.

The sire to associate gay inty wh a particular part of the polil spectm don’t reflect the muny’s diversy and n actively alienate people who are not part of that polil group — at the expense of the terts of the muny as a whole. What was origally known as the “gay liberatn” movement was born out of a wi-rangg cultural ferment on the left the 1960s and early 1970s that also gave rise to the women’s liberatn, anti-war and Black power movements, a cross-pollatn among activists groups scribed Cornell Universy’s archive on the history of gay activism. Given this background, and aid by the fact that their nservative antagonists were generally favor of ee-market enomic polici, gay rights activists durg the 1970s were associated wh a hostily toward palism, markets and rporatns.

TIRED GAY SUCCUMBS TO DIX 200 METERS

This was not entirely by flt — some gay activists were mted socialists who thought the two stggl were closely lked. Gay historian Mart Duberman, an activist himself, readily adms that “The gay left — like every other kd of left this untry — has rarely reprented more than a small mory. ”But that lk between gay rights and hostily toward ee markets ntu to exist for some people today.

”The actual history of gay pri and rporate Ameri, however, is much more posive and llaborative.

Pani — often persuad by ternal affy groups formed by their own gay employe — implemented nondiscrimatory hirg l and extend benefs to same-sex domtic partners when virtually no natnal policians were willg to support such polici publicly.