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on corporate pride
Jun. 2nd, 2024 08:33 amI don't mistake "corporate pride" for activism, or anything that corporations do as morally informed. But I do treat it as an important diagnostic for where our society is.
To whatever extent you see LGBT support on corporate property, not only have the bean-counters decided that they'd gain more revenue than they'd lose, but also, every company has people at the top who can still impose their will, and could have vetoed Pride efforts if they believed as strongly as their ancestors did in the wickedness of homosexuality. That's what makes Target's backpedaling such a somber milestone in the escalation of right-wing terrorism, and a demonstration of how fragile civil rights advances can be. But the terrorists haven't won until everyone's back in the closet. And considering how white-hot the rhetoric against "gender ideology" has gotten, any visible unambiguous trans support is a stronger positive indication – though still, of course, it's only a reflection, a signal that being welcoming is still, just for now, more profitable than being cowardly.
To whatever extent you see LGBT support on corporate property, not only have the bean-counters decided that they'd gain more revenue than they'd lose, but also, every company has people at the top who can still impose their will, and could have vetoed Pride efforts if they believed as strongly as their ancestors did in the wickedness of homosexuality. That's what makes Target's backpedaling such a somber milestone in the escalation of right-wing terrorism, and a demonstration of how fragile civil rights advances can be. But the terrorists haven't won until everyone's back in the closet. And considering how white-hot the rhetoric against "gender ideology" has gotten, any visible unambiguous trans support is a stronger positive indication – though still, of course, it's only a reflection, a signal that being welcoming is still, just for now, more profitable than being cowardly.
