With renewed hatred towards the queer community, pride this year is as important as ever.
As the LGBTQ+ community became more visible, companies started to openly advertise to them. For major companies, the LGBTQ+ community presented a new demographic to target with ad campaigns.
Anheuser-Busch recently partnered with trans TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney to promote Bud Light. This partnership sparked controversy and led to an excess of anti-trans hate levied towards Mulvaney and the brewery.
In the wake of this partnership, employees of the brewery received a barrage of death threats. Videos of angry consumers throwing away Bud Light appeared, while Kid Rock posted a video of himself shooting cases of Bud-Light to protest the partnership. Other consumers elected to boycott the brewery, leading to a decline of Bud Light sales.
Eventually the brand started to distance themselves from the influencer, showing that Anheuser-Busch would rather prioritize having the support of a transphobic customer base over supporting the LGBTQ+ community.
While Bud Light buckled under the weight of controversy, Kingston’s small businesses openly and proudly support the queer community.
This pride month, small businesses in Kingston banded together to host pride activities from June 11 to 17.
To kick off the pride week, Kingston Nexus held a pride board game night. As a space that holds routine events for queer game lovers, Kingston Gaming Nexus is a perpetual safe space for queer people in Kingston. Making it fitting that they kicked off the week full of pride-centred events.
A diverse variety of events made pride more accessible. Kingston businesses held events for different types of people, ranging from trivia for the academically inclined to volleyball for the people who wanted to celebrate pride through athletics.
Pride week culminated with a pride fair, which included performances from local drag queens, booths set up by local organizations, and a vibrant parade, with organizations, local schools, churches and Kingston fire and rescue department marching down Princess St.
Even though we live in more progressive times, expressing support for the LGBTQ community can still lead to backlash.
Small businesses tend to serve more limited customer bases and are integral in shaping their local communities. As such, they’re often the first to indicate whether a community will be welcoming to certain groups.
Small businesses don’t always have surplus capital to fall back on like larger brands do, and aren’t always able to take risks that start controversy. making them less likely to show support for the LGBTQ+ community.
By creating events for pride, Kingston businesses are choosing to help create a community safe for LGBTQ+ people. Ultimately prioritizing solidarity over protecting themselves from controversy.
While the fight for LGBTQ+ rights isn’t over, Kingston pride shows the strides we have made towards a better future.
Tags
Kingston Pride, Pride month, tik tok
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