Quit rainbow washing Pride

I remember the first time Kelly and I marched in a Pride parade. We arrived at the appointed time, a good ninety minutes before it started. Then we stood around with the other people in our contingent, laughing and taking it all in.

The start time came and went. Officials told us we couldn’t start until some important ally arrived, so we waited. Finally, several lesbian women from Dykes on Bikes, the group that traditionally leads the parade, lost their patience. They revved their engines and took off. The rest of us followed, ignoring the demands of officials to stay put until the dignitary showed up.

This year’s Salt Lake event will be scaled back thanks to corporations pulling their support. It’s true of events around the country. Although it’s still early, Chad Call, executive director of the Utah Pride Center, which puts on Utah’s festival, says sponsorships have “declined significantly” and he expects donations to be “hundreds of thousands” less than last year.

How that will affect the community’s celebration is unclear. Call did say there wouldn’t be a specific area for families with kids. That’s a huge loss considering Utah has probably the country’s largest population of families headed by LGBTQ+ parents. No one would confirm if it’s due to budget cuts.

Even more frustrating, officials at UPC aren’t divulging which corporations have abandoned the community during its most popular event or why they’ve pulled out. Call didn’t address those questions, but at least he got back to me. His marketing director didn’t respond at all. Honestly, I find the lack of transparency from the group very concerning.

Call rightly suggests that there are “myriad reasons” companies choose not to remain a sponsor, although he did not elaborate. With an absence of clarity, I can only hypothesize why corporations jumped ship, leaving the event so significantly underfunded. I suppose some may have financial issues. Others may spread the love to different organizations each year.

However, I can’t help but wonder if these so-called corporate allies have pulled out because they’ve never been real allies in the first place. A real ally isn’t just in it for what the queer community can do for them; they stand with us through thick and thin. And that’s my issue with UPC’s coyness. Sure, Call and his team are likely being prudent by keeping the missing donors’ names under wraps – former sponsors can be approached again in the future. However, who says the community wants them back?

One of the greatest complaints about Pride has always been Rainbow Washing by corporations. They toss some money at organizations, slap rainbows on products, and suddenly they’re an ally. But queer people – and maybe especially queer parents – need to know who our real allies are. Who will be with us during the fight that’s brewing to maintain the basic human rights we’ve struggled so hard to obtain?

Being an ally when it’s easy means absolutely nothing. The community – from Dykes on Bikes to boring gay dads – deserve to know who is with us for the long run, not just for a festival in June.

I recognize that the Utah Pride Center is in a tough position. I appreciate all they do. But they have a duty to be transparent with the community they represent. At the very least, the Center’s Board of Directors should require a full list of 2024 and 2025 sponsors to be posted. After all, it may only be a matter of time before Utah Pride repeats the events I witnessed in San Francisco all those years ago, and the people move forward without those so-called leaders.