rainbow washing

 

MATTXIV

This is one of my main beefs with the convenient way in which corporations are suddenly, very 'gay friendly'. Corporations that sell weapons (BAE Systems), corporations that donate to Repugs (AT&T donated to Mitch McConnell), corporations that used to market to nazis (BMW) or for a more clear example, the Police. And it's to allow those corporations in Pride that some Gay men (especially cisgender white gay men) insist that Kink and Leather should be kept away from Pride. In order to make it more palatable for corporations, so they can sell Pride to the straights and the straights in turn, 'accept' teh gheyz. Fuck that, as Anne Marie would say.

There is nothing worse than being talked down to by these corporate brands, and their selling and "support" for the one month. But then turn right around donating money to conservative causes. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for having a good time at  Pride, as long as I remember the real reason I'm, and we are all there for. But I personally don't think these corporations and brands should be there, and I don't buy they give a single fuck about any of this and only care about their financial bottom line. If corporate America really possessed a genuine commitment to the LGBTQ acceptance, they'd be engaging in more activism, and marching with us, unbranded... where homosexuality in some cases is a death sentence. We shouldn't allow ourselves to be fooled, and make sure our goods come from truly honest gay owned companies when it comes to Pride. And if you do attend a Pride, lets make our fore queens proud...and be there to support each other and continue the fight, and protest,  and be in this for the right reasons.

THEMISTRESSBORGHESE

The colors of this flag is what helps me find the Queers in the suburbs, in the 'urban' neighborhoods, in the Lily white and the affluent closed communities. This flag and Pride are the ways we have to celebrate collectively our Queer identity and our Queer elders, who saw their friends die by the dozen and the Police brutalize and exploit them.  Erasing Kink and allowing Pinkwashing to occur is an affront to the people who fought so hard to give us the rights we have today. It's plain gross. Remember: the first Pride march was a riot.

MATTXIV

MATTXIV

That is why I insist that I trust and celebrate the seventy-year old leather daddies. I celebrate them,  covered in tattoos and wearing knee-high black boots and carrying a rainbow flag under the relentless summer sun, more than I celebrate any corporation for which I'm told to tame it down to please the straights and the assimilationist gays. Their kink kept them together during a plague and the leather community was the only family they had when everybody was dying of AIDS. 

Fuck assimilation. I don't want assimilation. I don't want to have to to bend over backwards to gain the straight's blessing or respect. That is not respect. That's submission. The straights are gonna point and laugh at you once June ends, anyway. If they don't respect you now, they won't respect you after that bank's float has passed by. No matter how 'respectable' you look or act. I don't want the corporations' June rainbows. I want those assimilationist gays to take several seats and shut their traps. The corporations do not care about my Pride, the corporations care about the money I can give them. And they're not seeing one red cent unless they put their money where their rainbows are. 

It freaks me out, sometimes, to see how much in synch Maddie and I are on some issues. I was thinking about this post last week and yesterday, she read my mind. As Symone says, never let the smooth taste fool you.

XOXO

P.S. while you're here, let me remind you to support your local gay bar, your local drag queens, your local LGBTQ center, your local high school's GSA chapter, your local GLAAD chapter, and the local gay businesses in your community (I see you, Jimmy!). Now, that's Pride. And it lasts all year.