Capitalism doesn’t belong at Pride unless it truly benefits the LGBTQIA+ community

We love our Pride shirts and pins, but capitalism can take serious advantage of Pride Month and the existence of the LGBTQIA+ community.

No cops at Pride, and no capitalism at Pride either. Unless that capitalism benefits the LGBTQIA+ community (and every letter within our community) or it’s sold by an LGBTQIA+ artist or store owner.

Every summer, we’re tempted by the latest collections of rainbow-themed apparel, enamel pins, and anything lathered in a palette fit for a Pride parade. After all, June and even July are the only times of the year when we don’t have too much trouble finding LGBTQIA+ merch at any major retailer. It’s one of the many perks of Pride festivities — beyond the opportunities we get to feel safe about existing.

Now, any member of the LGBTQIA+ community who goes to H&M or Target to get a bisexual shirt or a rainbow cap isn’t part of this capitalism problem. We just want affordable ways to celebrate our identities, and there’s no shame in that.

There can also be positive outcomes from brands who capitalize off of Pride Month and any or all of identities in the LGBTQIA+ community. Though only beneficial under very conditional criteria, exceptions to this exploitive nature include companies who donate a portion or all of their Pride profits to LGBTQIA+ nonprofit organizations.

One amazing example is Cincinnati — they’re businesses just get it. They recognize the purpose of Pride is to help the community, especially if you’re selling products related to the community. Many of the city’s businesses are donating a part of their proceeds to LGBTQIA+ organizations.

How Pride merch can go very wrong, very fast

The nefarious nature of rainbow capitalism rests in how companies exploit marginalized identities for monetary gain. What makes this phenomenon worse is that many of these same organizations ignore our existence the other 11 months out of the year.

How are these companies exploiting the community when they offer so much Pride merch? Plain and simple, the products they sell first and foremost benefit the company. The money many companies make off Pride merchandise does nothing to help the community gain resources or outreach.

And for some companies, their recent Pride Month support can seem rather contradictory. For Nickelodeon, the company allegedly hasn’t upheld the same energy when it comes to LGBTQIA+ representation in its content.

Making LGBTQIA+ identities marketable also allows many companies to profit from us when they typically work toward invalidating and harming us the rest of the calendar year. The best example of this is obviously the Trump administration-official Pride merch or messages.

No amount of rainbow t-shirts will cover up Trump’s attempts to disenfranchise us further by revoking our access to health care, housing, and employment. Nor will a Pride hat make us forget the growing list of anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric and legislature Trump has attempted or succeeded in pushing.

Get your Pride merch from the community it’ll support

Now, a huge and understandable exception is LGBTQIA+ creators, who have the right to earnestly profit off of their own identity.

When they sell lesbian flags, identity-specific buttons, and anything else, it doesn’t fall in line with the corporate entities that leech off our identities. After all, LGBTQIA+ creators and artists are profiting off their own identities, much like us writers profit off our identities and our experiences — both positive and negative. That is part of us, so we reserve the right to share it how we wish, which includes our Etsy shops.

Of course, being an LGBTQIA+ artist, publication, or company does not automatically make that entity immune to harming the community or specific identities within the community. Though the publication wasn’t always transphobic and very terfy, AfterEllen is currently a prime example of this. Even as a lesbian and bi+ entertainment publication, it perpetuates transphobia.

Therefore, shopping for the perfect Pride apparel when apparel is already scarce can turn into a more laborious venture. With all the research and whatnot.

Thanks to the lack of transparency that often exists with corporations, many larger brands don’t necessarily have the LGBTQIA+ community’s best interests in mind. Instead, they just want to pocket money from marginalized identities while simultaneously monetizing from our existence, with little authority to do so.

Thankfully, there are still many LGBTQIA+-owned stores, publications, and gay artists who still sell Pride-related merch year-round, who also don’t harm any members of the community.

Seriously, if you’re looking to bolster your gay t-shirt collection, Autostraddle and many more have you covered. It eases our gay shopping expenditures, so we don’t have to be perpetually vigilant in June and beyond. If all else fails, at least we have a playlist and half filled with LGBTQIA+ artists to listen to.