[PradeetPatel]

Speaking as someone who worked in the reputation management sector, this kind of behaviour has been around since the early 20th century.

I think people often mistaken "region based marketing" for genuine political statements. If promoting pride yields a net positive increase in reputation and revenue in Western countries, one would be foolish not to jump on that bandwagon.

[yakubin]

Yeah, this is the reason why I stopped attending pride parades. When you're there, it looks like a big PR platform for a bunch of banks, Google, Apple and whatever. Those same companies don't advocate for the right of this community in places where it matters most, since it won't give them money, but it will mean risk. I think it would be fine, if they weren't part of the parades, but the hypocrisy is where it crosses the line for me. I'm also disappointed in pride parade leaders for allowing it, but I also doubt they're genuinely there for the cause, rather than the political platform it gives them to jumpstart their careers.

Same goes for Hollywood preaching. It would be a lot better, if they did nothing and never commented on politics, than the charade they're playing.

[AlexandrB]

> Those same companies don't advocate for the right of this community in places where it matters most, since it won't give them money, but it will mean risk.

It's worse than that. Many of these companies donate to political parties actively undermining those rights.

[carapace]

Growing up in SF I had a ringside seat for the "enclosure" of gay culture by-- I don't want to say "corporate", although that's a big part of it-- a lot of corporate execs are openly gay now, eh?

Anyway, Gay Pride and especially the Castro Halloween celebration went from being subversive to mainstream and the celebration itself literally became more exclusive, with fences and then ticket sales. Now it's the theme-park version of itself.

Same with Haight St. and the hippie culture: packaged up into a theme-park of itself. The actual hippies are marginalized in favor of tourism and consumerism.

[easeout]

Right, but supporting a marginalized group for a month doesn't have much of an ethical downside. Repressing it year-round sure does. I think it just means ethics are not an overriding factor for them, just another pro/con item. Or the goodwill of their home customers and employees is a cost of doing business in more countries.