So, I will make no secret that I’m rolling my eyes at all of that marketing stuff that goes up every year. But I’ve been thinking, it doesn’t have to be so superficial and pointless. Maybe there’s some rare exception out there that took the opportunity to say or do something meaningful.
Did you come across a company or organisation lately that use the occasion to take some stance beyond feelgood buzzwords or implement a policy internally or in their area of operations that is of at least some importance?
Why not just hop on twitter and search #seattlepride ? There’s probably (maybe?) tons of businesses who partook in that circus and hashtagged all about it…
Otherwise. What exactly do you want? You said it plainly already…
What else can you honestly expect? That is exactly what most observance months or commemorative months are all about… Besides making people feel recognized and accepted, what do you think corporations should be spending their money on that would make potential customers feel better about themselves?
I didn’t have any reason to think that that city’s pride month is particularly relevant to my question to go search it in advance.
Before I asked my question, I was thinking if two things:
Companies, where relevant, can let us know what policies they enacted that make them stand out. E.g. maybe they are an employer that will give parental leave even to families not recognised by the law in that jurisdiction, or that they just finished an internal project that saw or their internal and external documents to stop collecting gender information where it’s not justified and where it is justified, that they do it in an inclusive way.
They do something to mitigate anti-queer hatred in their area of operations that has an action plan backing it up. For example, where I live, there’s this Emergency Entrance programme where companies can enrol and display a sticker identifying them as refuges for people targeted by right-wing extremists. It looks like just marketing too, but it actually comes with an action plan that those participating are supposed to implement which adds a more tangible layer to the display of symbols to show support. (EDIT: The idea is, if you are being harassed or attacked, participating venues will offer you shelter, they will jump in to de-escalate, and contact emergency services and the right-wing violence registry to handle the incident)