From Bud Light to Target, Pride month saw rainbow capitalism dim in 2023

Three major retail companies have dominated headlines over the past several weeks for falling short on Pride initiatives, signifying that rainbow capitalism dimmed in 2023. Bud Light reneged on its support of its campaign with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in response to a group of anti-trans individuals boycotting the beer. Target removed its LGBTQ merch right before Pride month after customers threatened workers. And, in mid-June, Starbucks managers in 21 states reportedly asked their workers to remove Pride decorations from the stores or to not put them up at all. (A Starbucks spokesperson denied the allegations to Fortune and said the company continues to “unwaveringly support the LGBTQIA2+ community;” Bud Light and Target did not respond to request for comment). 

Six out of 10 top Fortune 500 companies told Fortune that they are celebrating Pride, mostly with internal events (the other four didn’t respond to requests for comment). But campaigns like these don’t always reach the pockets of the LGBTQ+ creators who need support; rather it reaches just the employees or the brand itself.

LGBTQ+ people in the creative fields also say that the lack of Pride campaigns means many companies aren’t offering them the work that they used to—something that queer creators are saying they are feeling in their wallets. 

“At first, I thought it was just me. But I talked to more and more of my friends in queer-trans creative circles who shared the same sentiment. We just aren’t getting booked this year,” Fran Tirado, a podcaster, filmmaker, and writer who’s previously collaborated with companies including Netflix, HBO, Google, Instagram, Nike, and Microsoft for Pride campaigns, tells Fortune. She adds that two employees who help plan and budget such campaigns at big tech companies said they had no plans for them this year.

Many people she knows, from drag artists to illustrators received little outreach for pride initiatives, which she says often makes up for the rest of the year’s low pay for queer creatives. Instead, friends are hiring each other “often without a corporation, to work together on their own dime.” 

It’s all happening at a time when more conservative and religious backed groups are passing anti-LGBTQ laws—Florida banned providing Medicaid for trans people and Tennessee passed an anti-drag bill, both of which have since been ruled unconstitutional. In the world of late capitalism, human rights can be intrinsically tied to corporations. When Roe v. Wade was overturned, some companies stepped up as the last safeguard of reproductive rights. But as fringe groups increasingly mobilized and push for anti-LGBTQ laws, some big brands are backing down rather than stepping up to support the community out of fear that doing otherwise would be bad for business.

Companies are turning on Pride campaigns 

While backlash against companies’ support of LGBTQ+ issues from fringe religious groups isn’t new, it’s become more extreme lately as it becomes a stronger part of the right’s platform. “We’ve seen for a long time boycotts of companies both from LGBTQ+ consumers and conservative and religious groups when companies have marketed to queer and trans consumers,” Katherine Sender, professor of feminist, gender, and sexuality studies at Cornell, tells Fortune. “What’s changed is an escalation of violence from right wing protesters, both online and in person, as in the case of Target,” she said, referring to the company’s claims that they were looking after their staff by taking away Pride merchandise. This has led some companies to pull back to “protect their employees from physical harm.” 

But Tirado thinks the move is less about prioritizing workers than it is about profits. Corporate leaders have “wane[d] from allyship in the interest of protecting their bag,” Tirado says. “Anyone on TikTok knows that conservatives going into stores and harassing employees for Pride merch has been a thing for years,” she adds. 

In British lifestyle magazine Dazed, journalist and editor James Greig argues that the behavior shows Pride campaigns were always about the tides of popular opinion rather than actual change. “As part of a broader process, rainbow capitalism helped to make certain demographics within the community (white, professional, middle class, cisgender) seem normal and unthreatening,” he writes. “But the fact that things have got so bad today suggests that it was a reflection, rather than a guarantor, of social tolerance.”  

But the companies who pulled out of Pride are catering to the minority opinion. One GLAAD study shows that three-fourths of non-LGBTQ+ Americans feel comfortable with LGBTQ+ advertising and brand sponsorship, while another finds that 70% of non-LGBTQ+ Americans believe companies should publicly support the LGBTQ+ community through ads, sponsorship deals, and hiring practices.

“For a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse, in my opinion, than not hiring a trans person at all,” Kyle Mulvaney said of Bud Light in a TikTok post, explaining that it gives customers a leeway to be hateful that can turn into a larger threat for other trans people.

The damage in backing out of LGBTQ+ support

Not every company has withdrawn its support. Some, like Disney, have stayed true to its backing of LGBTQ+ creators, while Walmart kept its Pride merch on the shelves. “While there were two higher profile instances of brands that had been longtime LGBTQ allies caving to bullies and revising LGBTQ-inclusive campaigns, the real story this Pride season is actually one of inclusion in the face of adversity,” GLAAD CEO Sarah Kate Ellis tells Fortune. “Hundreds of brands continued with Pride plans and stuck to values of inclusion in the face of criticisms from fringe anti-LGBTQ extremists.”

But that some companies reneged on Pride marketing at all is a harmful disservice to the queer community in the long-run. “It’s important for companies to consistently include LGBTQ+ consumers in their marketing campaigns,” Sender says. “The damage to their bottom line will ultimately be greater if they give in to right wing hostilities and do not remain committed to LGBTQ+ inclusion.”

Target’s stock dropped for nine straight days after it experienced backlash, although experts say economic changes were the bigger driver. And Bud Light fell from its perch as America’s number one beer brand in May, a spot it held for 20 years following right-wing backlash—but also due to the public’s disavowal of the brand backpedaling its support. By caving to the backlash so quickly, brands are alienating the growing LGBTQ demographic, whose global spending power is an estimated $3.9 trillion—7.2% of Americans identify as LGBTQ compared to 3.5% 10 years ago, most commonly among Gen Z. Flip-flopping back and forth between their commitments also runs the risk of losing consumer trust in the long-run.

people saying “good we don’t want their performative support” and ignoring the fact that it’s just another sign that things are about to get really really really dark and scary for queer ppl https://t.co/Giuq2vyE1f

— Alex (@ax_ferg) June 2, 2023

Some people have criticized companies in the past for “rainbow washing,” halfhearted capitalistic nods to inclusivity that miss the mark. “In an ideal world, there would be no Pride campaigns at all,” Tirado says, explaining that “exploiting marginalized storytelling for corporate gain is a long-game bad thing.” She favors supporting individual creators and businesses through mutual aid as a long-term solution. 

But she’s hopeful that “this year, despite being an unexpected financial detriment to queer and trans creatives across the board, can be an opportunity for the community to see that we are all we need.” Nonetheless, “this large-scale dipping from LGBTQ+ campaigns is disheartening,” she adds. 

At the end of the day, especially in 2023, any company not stepping up to support gay creatives sends a clear message. “We’re not looking to corporations for human rights guidance or messaging on the common good,” says Tirado. “We need accountability demonstrated. If they’re gonna talk the talk, they need to walk the walk. If they don’t want to walk, then stay out of our way and don’t count on us the next time they need queer or trans stories in order to sell product.”