I had the opportunity to see comedienne Maysoon Zayid recently, and she is amazing!
She is a Palestinian Muslim living with cerebral palsy. Maysoon is courageous in her thinking, activism, and humility, and I think more people should know about her!
Another LGBT Pride Month is about to come to a close, and, of course, we have been bombarded with rainbow flags on social media profiles and “pride” branded merchandise. It is a great thing that society has progressed that Corporate America is open to celebrating the LGBT experience.
However, I have many thoughts and concerns about this.
I think there is a lot of hypocrisy with some of the individuals and organizations sending out pride well-wishes. The most obvious one is Trump sending out a pro-LGBT tweet earlier this month when his administration is actively discriminating against transgender soldiers in the military and forbidding U.S. embassies around the world from flying the rainbow flag. Or the National Security Agency (NSA) putting out a pro-pride tweet when this agency, along with the FBI and CIA, has a long, prolific history of surveillance or blackmail in the LGBT community.
But even companies assumed to be gay-friendly are problematic like YouTube, which got backlash earlier this month for not banning racist and homophobic attacks on a gay YouTuber. And there are dozens of other companies that are also questionable when it comes to their true allegiances.
I think Corporate America has been gravitating to “pride marketing” for several reasons:
And quickly frankly, it is easy to do; anyone can put a rainbow flag on their logo temporarily and give the false, superficial impression to the world that they are pro-LGBT without having to be accountable for why they are doing it. Also, some of these companies will even conflate other marginalized groups and their issues under the rainbow flag.
No one can’t ever accuse us of being anti-immigrant, sexist, or racist because we have pride written in bright, rainbow colors on our website! – Corporate America
We in the black community has been complaining about this hijacking of Black History Month for similar reasons. Many companies purchase large advertisements in major black publications like Essence, Ebony, or Black Enterprise for the February editions to “celebrate” the achievements and advancements made by African-Americans. And, yet, most of these companies, especially the tech companies, have very few, if any, black employees. And if they do have a black employee, it’s usually their token black “chief of diversity” or someone else who doesn’t have a decision-making, leadership role within the organization. The company trots out this type of person only to sell the idea of workforce diversity, not the actual work behind making real workforce diversity happen. I have written previously about why these chiefs of diversity/inclusion/community relation/etc. positions are a joke.
I hope the LGBT community goes back to all of these companies on July 1 when the rainbow flag and pride logos and merchandise go away and hold them accountable. First, they should ask these companies what are they really doing about LGBT equality. While our society has made strides with making marriage equality a reality, LGBT people can still be fired from a job or denied housing because there are still no federal laws protecting them. Gay and bisexual men still can’t be blood donors. Second, what are these companies doing to safeguard intersectional LGBT folks? How are they protecting LGBT people who may also be immigrants or Muslims? What are they doing to protect LGBT people of color who might have a negative interaction with the police or criminal justice system? What about LGBT veterans or LGBT people with disabilities? If these companies are not doing anything about these issues, then they are not authentic, accountable allies.
Waving a rainbow flag is just not enough anymore!
What’s really sad about this is that most of these companies don’t even know what the Stonewall Uprising was, which is commemorating its 50th anniversary this year. The Stonewall demonstrators in 1969 just wanted the right to exist. I think that is a simple request.
At one of the many Christmas parties I went to during the holidays, I met up with a good friend of mine named Stella. In her day job, she works as a full-time nurse, but during after hours, she is a full-time social justice warrior. I get an email from her at least once a week about whatever progressive, anti-Trump protest, rally, cause or petition she wants me to support.
While dining at the party, Stella told me about her latest crusade; taking down Chick-fil-a. It was announced recently that the fast food franchise would be opening its first store within Boston city limits this year. There has been pushback by many progressives, including our late Mayor Menino, for many years to keep out businesses that don’t align with the city’s liberal values. Chick-fil-a founder, the late S. Truett Cathy, and his family run their business based on their Christian values, which includes being closed on Sundays to celebrate the Sabbath. However, the main objection to the restaurant coming to Boston has been the fact that Chick-fil-a donates money towards anti-LGBT causes.
Stella, who is openly bisexual, said that she will not only not eat at this new Chick-fil-a, but will also just support businesses that support a pro-LGBT agenda going forward. She wanted me and others at the party to take that pledge to do that as well.
I consider myself to be a progressive myself. While I support full rights for LGBT people, I am also a capitalist. I was never really a fan of this effort to “ban” certain businesses from coming to the city because of different beliefs on social issues. As a small business owner, I believe in letting the free marketplace decide on the fate of a business. If enough people decide they don’t want to support a business for whatever reason, whether it be because of the owner’s personal beliefs or simply because the company’s products or services are poor, then that business will cease to exist. That’s how capitalism works.
I am also a realist. I think it is admirable to say that you will not do business with companies based on personal beliefs; however, it is not realistic to a certain extent. Sure, there are lists that exist showing businesses that support “XYZ” causes that you can find online. But in reality, if you tried to only support businesses that support all your personal beliefs and politics, you would not have many places to shop or eat at. You more than likely interact with people at businesses every day who have a wide variety of belief systems that you would be shocked by if you knew ahead of time. Do you know what the cashier at your local supermarket thinks about abortion? How about the bartender at that restaurant you like to eat at? What does your dry cleaner really think about black people? Does your plumber have a bias against people with disabilities having rights? The only difference here is that Chick-fil-a publicly advertising its opinions. It is not against the law to have certain opinions and beliefs. Same-sex marriage has been legal in the United States for a couple of years now, but that doesn’t mean everyone in the country supports it. Heck, abortion has been legal for 45 years, and there are still many people against it, including business owners.
With that said, this would be a different conversation if there was evidence Chick-fil-a was discriminating against LGBT people in employment. When personal belief is used to go against the law, that is where the line is drawn. There is still no federal law barring companies from discriminating against LGBT workers; however, there are a few states, including Massachusetts, that do protect against LGBT employment discrimination. But employment discrimination at Chick-fil-a doesn’t seem to be the case here. Wal-Mart has also been “banned” from Boston for its many documented poor labor practices. However, the failed push to bring the second headquarters for Amazon, which has similar labor issues, to Boston might signal a change in the city’s attitude about accepting these companies.
In the meantime, I do enjoy a Chick-fil-a sandwich every once in a while at the nearest restaurant to Boston, not because I support the company’s anti-gay stances, but because it is simply a good sandwich.
A few days ago, I was reorganizing my inbox and came to the realization that nearly 40 percent of my emails in the last two years were about organizing efforts against Trump. I am on a lot of email lists for many social justice organizations and my friends and colleagues forward me stuff about upcoming protests, rallies, petitions, sit-ins, fundraisers, panel discussions, speaker series and other actions. Living in liberal Boston, there seems to be something going on almost every day.
I have finally come to the conclusion that I have protest fatigue. This is not just because I feel like nothing is charging or getting worse in this country (which is very true), but also because I don’t feel like most of these efforts are focused on big-picture solutions. Yes, it is always great to see large crowds come out to protest anti-Trump initiatives against immigrants, Muslims, people of color, women, low-income and LGBT folks etc. However, the reality is that a lot of these protesters are not voting on election day, which matters a lot more. If they are voting, there are not voting strategically.
Quite a few of the people who are always forwarding me emails about anti-Trump protests voted for Jill Stein or wrote in Bernie Sanders in the 2016 election. When I see people like Susan Sarandon complaining about Trump, I just can’t be bothered by them. In my opinion, if you voted for Jill Stein or Bernie Sanders, you might as well have had voted for Trump. In all honesty, I need these to shut up because you get the government you deserve.
Regarding folks who didn’t vote at all in 2016, they are also part of the problem. I have a friend who is a black, unemployed single mother in Michigan who didn’t vote because she didn’t think her vote would matter, as she thought Hillary Clinton would win. She lives in a swing state and didn’t think her vote would matter!!! Her vote would have mattered more than mine since I live blue Massachusetts. And yet, she continues to complain to me about Trump taking away her health care benefits.
You get the government you deserve!
I would like to see the Democrats be less anti-Trump and more pro-policy solutions. While I think it is valid to continue the Russia investigation and look into other unethical concerns within the Trump administration, they can’t expect to win the 2018 midterms and 2020 presidential election purely on Russian hackings, impeachment, and Stormy Daniels. Most Americans care about jobs, healthcare, education and a host of other issues. What is their plan to win any of these elections? More importantly, how do both parties encourage more people to not only vote in the major, national elections but also the local elections happening every year? Your mayor, city councilor, state representative, and town alderman have a more direct impact on your everyday quality of life than anything that is going on in Washington.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Democratic primary win is a small sign of hope, but let’s remember she won in blue New York City. If people want to see the fruits of their protest labor, they need to get involved, get informed and start voting often every.