(no subject)

[olivermoss]

Fuck, this June I haven't even seen Pride discourse. Not that I miss it, but... the usual focus from content creators I follow, the pride fan art and fics, the events, just.... file non found. Also, fuck Target so I haven't done my usual shopping of their pride collection. Haven't seen pride collections elsewhere, really. I haven't seen chalkings or yarn bombings. No sudden rainbow flags up in corporate owned stores or the cognitive dissonance of 'don't assume our employees pronouns!' signs in stores where those employees are aggressively mis-gendering me because friendly-style customer service tends to be very gendered. Not to mention the queer art and craft events where creators try to get my attention by going 'ma'am, ma'am, ma'am' and then get louder when I don't respond.

June's fucking annoying, but this quiet isn't good.

Comments

[mistressofmuses]

The quiet definitely doesn't feel great. :/

I've still seen a handful of small things by online creators and things, and some stuff in storefronts in Denver, but mostly in places that already have that stuff up year-round.

There are still pride events in various cities around here, and I plan to go to Denver Pride on Saturday. But on the whole road trip to NM and back the only pride flag I noticed was in Taos on a Lutheran church. (I'm sure there were others! Just... not that I saw.)
I only saw screenshots of the sad beige Target "pride collection" this year, but otherwise... like, I think I saw one flyer up in Starbucks about it being pride month, but no merch type stuff.

I enjoy pride as a whole, or at least want to love the idea of it, if not the execution. While the rainbow capitalism nonsense has never been great, the resounding silence is worse.

[olivermoss]

I hope Denver Pride is good.

Rainbow capitalism has it's problems, but it's like a barometer. Lots of it means things are chill, and also people can buy shirts and pins at good prices. Not everyone has the access to stuff that I have. But, I wouldn't touch Target's pride collection after the recent BS even if their collection was good. I used to like shopping their collection.

I'm still hoping for a good pride experience someday. But if one more person says that 'going this year is a revolutionary act' I am going to hibernate when we get around to our July event.

[mistressofmuses]

Thank you, I hope it is, too! Last year they started a section devoted entirely to smaller creators (with cheaper booth rental than the ones that mostly go to big organizations and corporations; there'd been a lot of complaints about how corporate it had gotten, which were deserved, but the booth rentals are also the biggest fundraiser for the main Denver LGBTQ+ center.) I'd wanted to check the smaller creators' area out last year, but Taylor was doing poorly in the heat, so we ended up leaving before we got there. I hope to start there this year. I'm also a little curious to see just which corporate entities still have booths.

That's exactly it: I don't *love* the shallow or performative corporate pride stuff, but it IS a good measure for where the culture is at. If it's profitable to cater to The Gays for a month or so, then that's a fairly good marker of acceptance. (And like you said, offers some nice, lower price-point stuff for people who may really benefit from that.) Once swapping to a rainbow logo on your social media for a month, or bringing out some pride stuff for the month, isn't considered "good optics," then that's not a good sign.

I've previously really liked stuff out of Target's pride collection, too. I've got a couple shirts, a pencil bag, a tote bag, stuff like that from various years in the past. I wouldn't touch it this year either (even if it didn't utterly suck), but it's still really depressing where it's at now.

I think the most robust pride section I've seen anywhere corporate was... Petco. They had a lot of pretty cute stuff. (I would have bought Bella a stupid rainbow hat to shield her stupid head from stupid sunburn, but they didn't have her size.)

Uuuuuugh. I still really hope that you do get a good pride experience at some point, and it sucks that you've had so many crappy ones. I could reeeeeally do with less of the "this is revolutionary" talk. Like... Yes, the first pride was a riot! Yes, there's value in organizing and being visible and present even in the face of a shitty social and political climate! But also... uuuuuuuuuuuuugh.

[olivermoss]

Good to hear about more indie creators. But yeah, it's a trade off because the events are expensive. Again, corporate stuff sucks, but the money covers a lot of stuff. People worked for ages to get deals in place for funding, and some cities are facing problems with the sudden corporate pull outs. I get the objections but like, there's trade offs. Stuff, it costs a lot. No cops at pride? Well, over a certain size that means a private security contract, whether or not attendees realize those people over there are security.

I really need a pride shirt besides my D&D one.

[mistressofmuses]

The more indie area was nice, and it's something I'm very glad the event has.

But yeah. The corporate stuff isn't great, and as is the issue right now, can be very fair-weather. At the same time... yup, things cost money, and getting that money from big donors IS a really great way to fund the outreach and community aid and social group stuff for the rest of the year. I heard that the event here was down anywhere from $100k to $250k due to loss of major sponsorships (different numbers from different sources; not sure which is most accurate or current.) Wherever the number actually falls, that's a lot of money, and the need for the services the center provides hasn't gone *down.*
And yeah... same re: cops. Good thought to not want a group with a really fraught history and current problems with the community to be present/no good cops/etc... but yeah, an event of this size *can't* go without something, and private security is also not without problems.
It's all trade offs, and there aren't any perfect, drawback-free solutions.

[olivermoss]

Yeah, that's a lot of money no matter how you slice it. Sponsorships take the burden of funding off of the community. That really sucks.

Someone I know who ran her town's first Pride this year had private security, but also had the local fire fighters there as 'community outreach' with a truck and everything. Fire fighters aren't cops, but they are a deterrent and have medical training. That was super savvy of her.

[mistressofmuses]

That's exactly it... Individual donors from within the community aren't likely to manage multiple hundreds of dollars in donations, as nice as it would be to be completely community funded/supported.

Ooh, that's a great idea, having firefighters present. Definitely less fraught than true law enforcement, but still with a bit of authority and some of the emergency training that would be helpful in case something went badly.