It’s June and Pride is here! And we all know what that means. No, not parades, silly. Corporations cloaking themselves in rainbow flags and well-meaning (or completely tone-deaf) fumbling gestures of solidarity in the quest for those LGBTQ+ dollar dollar bills, y’all!
For the next month (and certainly no longer, right?) social media will be choked with marketing campaigns seeking to embrace (or co-opt) the community and if past years are any indication, they’ll run the gamut from cheer-worthy to cringe-worthy. Remember that Bud Light poster that hit about the same note as Dick Cheney screaming “Yaaaas,Queen!” at you would?
This year, LGBTQ+ users are staging a series of preemptive strikes on the sure-to-happen facepalms that await throughout the month by cooking up their own “partnerships.” Which are really just partnerships with sass.
NPR’s Glen Weldon went for the jugular … or chest, actually, when he conjured up the chest-burster scene from 1979’s Alien. He actually made it a twofer with another tweet that combined Mego action figures and Amalgam comics (which asks the question of whom he confused more; straight people, or non-geeks).
Filmmaker Jessica Ellis fired shots not only at corporatism, but at the already- embattled Sweden.
Some folks just used the meme to let everyone know the struggle is indeed still real. With or without corporate influence.
And some folks, of course, just went straight for the throat.
Happy Pride, y’all! And don’t forget, Pride didn’t start in a boardroom.
