Corporate America’s rainbow virtue-signaling is not just hypocritical — it’s harmful

Every June, Americans are treated to a never-ending onslaught of rainbow-themed promotions and focus-grouped statements from corporate giants in honor of Pride Month. In some sense, this annual trend is a sign of the tremendous progress we’ve made in this country toward the acceptance of gay people. But corporate America’s rainbow virtue-signaling also rubs many people the wrong way, even gay people like myself, because it’s so transparently empty and hypocritical.

Countless companies will change their logos to rainbow colors or put up cheesy Pride-themed graphics on their social media accounts. Yet, in a revealing omission, they usually won’t do this for their international accounts in countries or regions where homosexuality is either illegal or heavily stigmatized.

For example, ExxonMobil boasts a rainbow-themed banner on its U.S. Twitter account but not on its account for India, where homosexuality remains highly stigmatized.

Similarly, Linkedin went all-in with a Pride Month message on its U.S. Twitter account — but interestingly, it has no Pride Month posts on its India account so far this year. In a similar manner, Starbucks lauds Pride Month on its U.S. Twitter account — and it even has Pride-themed cups — but does not mention it on its UAE profile, Brunei profile, or India profile. I wonder why?

These are just a few of the endless examples of corporations whose rainbow rhetoric and gay-friendly graphic designs only extend to their locations where these ideas are widely accepted (in other words, the places where the messages aren’t really necessary).

Some big companies are even bigger hypocrites, though, as they actively lecture Americans on LGBT tolerance while caving to authoritarian governments abroad and censoring gay content.

Disney, for example, is very vocal about its support for Pride. It has even publicly criticized U.S. politicians and policies it believes are insufficiently enlightened on these issues.

However, it has also actively censored its content to remove gay moments in movie versions shown in countries where homosexuality is illegal. And a March letter from LGBT employees and allies inside Disney complained, “We at Pixar have personally witnessed beautiful stories, full of diverse characters, come back from Disney corporate reviews shaved down to crumbs of what they once were. Nearly every moment of overtly gay affection is cut at Disney’s behest, regardless of when there is protest from both the creative teams and executive leadership at Pixar.”

Apparently, Disney’s stunning and brave defense of LGBT rights instantly evaporates when it might lose out on selling its product in an anti-gay market.

Apple might be the worst of all the hypocritical offenders. It proudly pronounces its support for gay rights here in the United States while actively colluding with authoritarian governments to block LGBT-related apps in other countries.

A new report from Fight for the Future finds that “Apple has been enabling government censorship of LGBTQ+ content, most directly 1,377 documented cases of app access restrictions, in 152 App Stores around the world. Moreover, at least 50 LGBTQ+ apps, including the majority of the most popular ones, are currently unavailable in one or more App Stores.”

“Apple is plastering rainbow flags across their marketing operation in the U.S., but in the meantime, they are actively helping governments around the world isolate, silence, and oppress LGBTQ+ people,” Fight for the Future Director Evan Greer said.

The hypocrisy here is galling.

As Outkick’s Bobby Burack put it, for these companies, “A rainbow profile photo isn’t a celebration of the gay community … it’s an opportunity for companies partnering with staunch anti-gay governments to grant themselves a reputation in the U.S. that they do not deserve.”

Now, look, I’m a free-market capitalist, so I completely understand that these companies have an obligation to pursue profit and the best interests of their shareholders. If that means making calculated, amoral business decisions abroad, so be it. But what they shouldn’t do is talk out of both sides of their mouth. If these companies want to act like ruthless profit-seekers, do it, but don’t simultaneously claim to be enlightened champions of tolerance who pursue social justice over money.

That’s just downright dishonest and insulting.

It’s also deeply counterproductive because even though the official “Pride” movement has become hopelessly intolerant and politicized, we still need the spirit of pride more broadly. While great progress has been made, there are still countless gay, lesbian, or transgender people in the U.S. who face familial rejection, violence, or social backlash for being who they are.

Too many people get caught up in their online bubble or the urban area they live in and think that all of society has become tolerant and that being gay is now a nonissue. While that’s sometimes true, wonderfully so, trust me: That’s very much not the case in many parts of this country.

And on a global scale, there are still 71 countries where homosexuality is outright illegal. In 11 countries, it is still punishable by the death penalty! (These, of course, tend to be the very same countries where “woke” corporations go silent.)

So we very much still need the spirit of Pride Month and to work toward tolerance for all. (Yes, I believe that means tolerating even those who personally don’t support homosexuality.) But corporate America only sabotages this necessary cause in the minds of the public when it cheapens Pride Month to cringe-worthy pandering and transparently hypocritical business decisions.

We’d all be better off if woke corporations would either put their money where their mouth is — or just shut up.

Brad Polumbo (@Brad_Polumbo) is a co-founder of Based-Politics.com, a co-host of the BasedPolitics podcast, and a Washington Examiner contributor.