Boycotts Work – LGBT Influencers Whining Over Companies Suddenly Walking Away from Partnerships Amid Scandals
A number of LGBT influencers have gone on the record in recent weeks to complain they did not receive corporate partnership offers leading up to and during “pride” month in numbers they are accustomed to, while others are turning on big business.
This is more evidence, beyond sales and market cap hits, that conservative boycotts of companies that go “woke” are indeed working.
Such boycotts appear to be forcing companies to rethink their entire strategy in regard to pandering to the LGBT community.
The result is LGBT activists who rely on big business to make money have been waiting for emails that do not appear to be coming to their inboxes.
In recent years, American consumers have grown used to such campaigns and have mostly chosen to tolerate them.
For some conservatives who are not interested in the sexual preferences or identities of strangers, July 1 cannot come soon enough on an annual basis.
But this year, two months prior to the start of “pride” month, Anheuser-Busch crossed a line when it paid transgender social media activist Dylan Mulvaney to push its Bud Light brand.
Bud Light printed Mulvaney’s face on a can of beer, sparking an organic boycott that is now in its 10th week.
Target also crossed a line with conservatives when it placed “pride” merchandise,” some of it satanic, at the front of some stores.
Both companies quickly learned that people who hold traditional values on marriage, gender, sexuality and protecting children do have a breaking point.
Bud Light drinkers are not typically the kind of consumers to pay a company to affirm a man’s claims of womanhood.
In May, countless Target customers found themselves fed up with corporate activism crossing a boundary.
As a result, it appears as though many companies have almost completely paused reaching out to LGBT influencers for paid partnerships.
One transgender influencer named Rose Montoya told the U.K.’s Guardian he has only received a handful of deals.
He also said he is not alone.
“I’ve spoken to a lot of my trans friends and colleagues, and we’ve all noticed [fewer] brands seeking partnerships and smaller budgets for Pride campaigns,” Montoya told the outlet on Tuesday. “It’s disappointing.”
Added Montoya, “I’m disappointed to see brands caving to bullies.”
Montoya made the comments a day after he flashed his augmented breasts at a White House “pride” celebration hosted by President Joe Biden.
The trans influencer is now banned from the White House, The New York Post reported.
Weeks before the ban, Montoya told Newsweek that his inbox was not filled with the usual endorsement offers.
“What’s wild is usually all of April and May I’m receiving dozens of emails from all sorts of brands large and small, networks, in-person speaking events, you name it,” Montoya said. “I haven’t received a dozen yet.”
While Montoya said he and other sex and gender activists are not getting cut checks like they are used to, there is also evidence that corporate America’s embrace — until now — of the LGBT lobby has put it at odds with that community.
A drag queen who goes by the name Yvie Oddly complained to the Guardian that the money flows in smaller amounts from July to May.
“I’m paid drastically differently in June, and I get more opportunities then,” Oddly said. “Brands know that I am more lucrative for their business during this month than any other time of year, which is why they’ll take the slight risk of hiring a drag queen to talk about things for them.”
Oddly added, “It’s easy to say and do something when nobody is pushing back.”
Meanwhile, One LGBT influencer named Ian Michael Crumm told Guardian he now views big business with suspicion.
“I love Pride merch, but there is a fine line,” Crumm said. “There are times that you can just tell it feels like a money grab.”
Katherine Sender, a Cornell University communications professor who focuses on corporate gender and sexuality in media campaigns, explained in a recent interview with NPR that LGBT people sometimes view themselves as being used by corporations.
“[Companies] bop into the area of gay marketing in June, and we don’t hear anything more about them for the rest of the year in that realm,” Sender told NPR. “They’re not really connected with the community … [T]hey don’t have any queer or transgender or nonbinary people involved in the production of campaigns.”
Sender and the LGBT influencers each shared a perspective that brings into question why companies don’t opt to stay out of divisive social issues altogether.
As the country has seen with Bud Light, there is not much to be gained by entering the culture war.
Meanwhile, such companies have everything to lose.
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