"The Year Pride Went Beige": LGBTQ+ Activism Through Fashion - Topic of the day 6/8/25
For many, June is a time for showing solidarity for LGBTQ+ individuals through wearing rainbow-themed or other overt means, however, as The Business of Fashion reports, that may be changing as brands and retailers shift to more muted products and more reduced offerings. What are your feelings on this - do the potential benefits (less risk of being targeted in response, more "aesthetic", etc.) outweigh the potential drawbacks (less representation, more sanitized, etc.)? Does the method of support matter, and if so how does a brand (or person) reconcile that with their own personal style? These are questions meant to spark open and respectful conversation; please remember #rules 1, 3 and 6 when replying.
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20 Replies
The BoF article is really good I highly recommend reading it
over brunch i drunkenly said that at a time where lgbtq+ rights are eroding (at least in the us), visible allyship matters and i stand by that
it's funny bc for the longest time my issue is that pride themed merch was ugly but in hindsight i think some things transcend aesthetics
individual people can and should make their own choices - i'm not gonna suddenly support lockheed martin or thursday boots simply because they slapped a rainbow over their merch - but i appreciate brands that have a consistent and positive form of support
This might be kind of an aside, but when I worked retail it was actually fun to see the hetero girls that I worked with go off for the pride collection. I was the only out lesbian member of staff, and I know it was more about collecting for them, but it did feel good to watch them all go mad for the new bags when we opened pride stock
though i still want a pride themed raytheon tee just for the sillyness of it
I wanna get a pride pin for some of my jackets
I'm iffy on a lot of pride merch because it feels performative, but I hear what zeo is saying about visibility being the more important issue here
yeah, i saw an argument online once about whether like pro-trans yard signs are meaningful or "performative" and, ngl, especially if i'm in a generally less-accepting place or having a bad day, it does make me feel a little better
i went to the Out In STEM conference a while back, and several companies like Raytheon and shit were there, so I did get some arms-manufacturer pride merch, i think i've since lost or gotten rid of all of it though
wrt defense company pride merch it would be funnier if it didnt exist and there werent queer people legitimately caping for the murder companies
100%
god that one trans guy on twitter who worked for northrup grummand and kept defending himself about it
yeah lmfao that's exactly the thing like, if i saw someone wearing a pride palantir shirt my first reaction would be "what a ghoul" and not "haha ironic shirt"
yeah, like, those people recruit at LGBT events and stuff and do have a lot of LGBT employees because, from what I've been told, they have pretty robust ERGs and shit? which feels like... idk, given economic conditions for a lot of LGBT people, it's kinda preying on people who may not see themselves having other options
youre much more charitable in your analysis than i(:
oh, i still think the people who fall into that are awful, but it is also a predatory system
anyway, to the point of the post: I think the beige, undercover pride stuff is a really really bad sign
There is something to be said with out and loud pride merch being a good thing. Yes it’s performative, yes it’s a way to make more money. However it at least says corporations acknowledge that lgbt groups exist and is worthwhile to market towards them. Companies not doing that is a bad bad sign.
Real picture the marine corps posted for pride month a couple years back btw
joe biden’s they/them army :HOLY:
I get what you're saying, but relying on corporations to tell you when a marginalized community is in danger is a bit like waiting for your basement to flood to realize it's raining.
Its more like the frog is already in the boiling water and now people are seeing the bubbles spill out. Its more of another sign that things are going very wrong.
I mean im not going to wait and see if target is going to carry their Voices of Mexico artist series this september to finally become aware that things are "seriously wrong" for mexicans in the united states.
Like what you're saying isn't wrong, it's just kinda fuckin dumb.
if it's worthwhile to market to them it should be worthwhile the other 11 months of the year; it's not like lgbtq+ people stop buying stuff on july 1st
i do get the argument - hence my original post - but while i do agree in visible allyship i think a corporation trying to have their cake (selling pride merch) and eating it (supporting officials who push anti-lgbtq+ rhetoric and legislation because they're getting some sort of break economically) isn't an actual ally
i dont like brands co-opting social movements for profit i think
but i understand gay merch as an indicator species for the acceptability of queerness in the zeitgeist
however, i think the car seat headrest listener count is a much more reliable metric.