Liberation, not Assimilation

In recent years we have seen many groups coming to support the LGBTQ+ community and our struggle, including huge multinational corporations.  While many queer people see this support as helpful and as proof of mainstream support for our community, this is simply not true. Corporations do not support us because they care deeply for our struggle, or because their CEOs are good people—to them, we are simply another marketing demographic.

When companies like Uber or Coca-Cola use rainbow branding, they are simply marketing their products to us. They attempt to gain our favour despite their shocking records of labour-rights violations, exploitation of their workers, and in Coca-Cola’s case, even funding right-wing paramilitary death-squads in Colombia. These businesses are owned by the very same people who lobby against things like trans healthcare for all, because it would require that they pay their fair share, which is inconvenient for their bank accounts.

They don’t truly accept us out of the goodness of their hearts. This is a cheap attempt to buy our favour through superficial support. We have been commodified as a demographic, as has our struggle—we are just another group to pander to.

This is not liberation. This is the reduction of our identity to a marketing tool. To them, we are just another way to make money. We should not fall for these sly, dehumanising shows of “support.”

We need to return to the revolutionary spirit of Stonewall and the 1980s. We must march towards true liberation, and acceptance for who we are. We shouldn’t have to sell off our identity in order to gain acceptance. Because we deserve human dignity.

That is why we say: liberation, not assimilation!