But if you were picked on for being different growing up, impulse-buying a trans flag at Kohl’s can give you a kind of vertigo.Īt the same time, the sheer laziness of it all can give rise to a worse feeling: the suspicion that no actual LGBTQ+ people were involved in any phase of a temporary campaign refresh. Granted, it’s a measure of undeniable social progress, even if equality’s seams are showing. Known as “pinkwashing”, this annual phenomenon elevates a crass kind of money-grubbing identity politics. Offer some to your straight friends before they go extinct. Pride month is a season of extra-cringe pandering, when algorithms and advertising pitch decks unveil rainbow versions of everything from Nike swooshes to Listerine, Whopper wrappers to Lil Nas X M&Ms –– or, in Skittles’ case, a bag of bleached and vaguely pharmaceutical candies because Mars deems the month suitable for tasting one and only one rainbow.
