Accountable Allies: Corporations & Pride
By Rachael Salisbury and Erik Mebust
In recent months, a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry has surged across the nation, spreading dangerous hate speech, fomenting violence, and animating a series of policies that threaten the lives of LGBTQ+ youth.
It is in this alarming context that we celebrate Pride, a celebration that has grown enormously since its inception over 50 years ago. Today, Pride parades attract millions of spectators while generating the economic impact of a major sporting event.
Increased prominence has not eliminated the threat of bigotry against the LGBTQ+ community. In 2022, a new assault on LGBTQ+ youth exploded, with online bigotry transforming into oppressive new laws in eight states that dehumanize LGBTQ+ people and cut LGBTQ+ youth off from lifesaving services. On July 1st, Don’t Say Gay, one of the most prominent pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, goes into effect in Florida, further threatening the rights and well-being of the LGBTQ+ community the day after Pride month ends.
The largest Pride celebrations are funded by dozens of corporations that pay, in sum, millions of dollars to sponsor and/or to participate. These corporations claim to be allies of the LGBTQ+ community, but our research indicates that many are, in fact, actively funding anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry. After a review of publicly available campaign contributions from the 2020 and 2022 electoral cycles, we find that 121 companies contributed over $3 million to the sponsors of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in six states. Of these companies, 34 have publicly sponsored Pride events in various cities across the country, and 15 took a Human Rights Campaign (HRC) pledge to oppose anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the states.
Stemming the flow of corporate money to anti-LGBTQ+ politicians would send a clear message that targeting LGBTQ+ people — especially youth — through legislation and rhetoric is unacceptable. In deep-red states where the LGBTQ+ community has few natural defenders, these corporations have the ability to provide a vital counterweight against the political pressure on conservative legislators to pursue such policies. Given the context — where the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned 50 years of reproductive rights precedent in favor of radical state policies, and signalled that LGBTQ+ protections such as same-sex marriage and the legalization of sodomy could be next — anti-LGBTQ+ legislators in deep-red states should be treated as a very real, very immediate danger.
New Data For Progress polling finds that corporations have a clear incentive to stop such giving: When likely voters are told about the contributions, they are around 30 percent less likely to view the company favorably. A majority of voters say they would take action against the companies because of the contributions.
When companies fail to align their political contributions with their stated values, employees can demand this commitment, and Pride organizations can cut ties with corporations that fail to honor it. Allyship is important social currency for corporations that wish to appeal to a broad range of demographics, and it is an important form of leverage for the LGBTQ+ community in seeking to protect itself from rising persecution.
In this memo, we offer a set of recommendations for LGBTQ+ activists, allies, elected officials, and Pride organizations to hold these purported allies accountable. Our research indicates no comprehensive list of such contributions has ever been assembled previously. This gap has stymied decades of activists seeking to hold corporations accountable for anti-LGBTQ+ practices. With the added transparency of our Accountable Allies project, we urge activists — as leadership and employees of corporations, Pride event sponsors and participants, and local leaders holding the purse strings for community events — to hold corporations accountable where they can.