Company Call Outs

Previously on data confirms things we already know, it was revealed that Pride is indeed less fun these days - mostly due to it being taken over by corporations (as well as other not-so-fun entries like politicians and religious organizations). As shocking as this wasn't, I wanted to focus in on this corporate aspect and explore it a little more. As explained before, I had compiled a dataset of parade lineups from a large liberal city in the northeast for the last 7 years. I also manually labeled the entries for various attributes, making it possible to find some interesting tidbits about the business of Pride.

While it is impossible to know all the exact reasons, strategies, and motivations a company has to participate in Pride, I think it is fair to say that as a spectator, there are very different feels from a large national corporation vs a local business. A large faceless corporation is much more flashy and advertise-y - throwing that corporate swag at you, a very "How do you do fellow kids" image comes to mind...

I would've thought the dollars from large corporate sponsorships would be more clearly pushing out smaller businesses. I only have data for a relatively short period of time though, and for a historically very liberal city, which might skew things. We also have to notice the overall increase in business entries during this time period, increasing the raw counts for both groups. However complicated a specific business' reasons are to participate, it seems clear that the social payoff from supporting LGBTQ+ issues is becoming more and more profitable.

I also felt it was important to keep track of the sector or industry of the participating business. In perhaps a controversial move, I considered healthcare related entries (hospitals, care centers, insurance companies, etc) as businesses, because my cynical self believes that at the end of the day they are just as profit driven. However, I do appreciate that participation by these entities is likely to be more beneficial to LGBTQ+ spectators than a typical business entry. Finding a doctor educated in non-binary gender identities or a therapist who understands transitioning or queer relationships is very personal and a much bigger feat than finding out Comcast is happy to sell your gay ass some cable. For that reason, looking at the number of entries by sector over time is quite interesting:

I am cautiously optimistic about the increase in healthcare entries, just because finding quality inclusive care is such a big issue in the community. Movement in other sectors is less interesting, mostly just steady increases as the parades get longer.

Getting into more specifics, I wanted to explore the large corporations that come to Pride. If Pride is destined to become a giant billboard, I at least wanted to give some shouts outs to extra supportive companies, and those who, maybe fall short.

These are the companies that have consistently participated in this cities Pride every year I have data for. Even for a liberal city, this was possibly not an easy sell in 2011. So bravo!

Better late than never, but here are the companies not joining till 2016 or later! Before there's backlash, I am aware that there are multiple reasons a company decides to or not to participate in these events, many that have nothing to do with support. I'm just reporting on the data I was able to obtain, this does not necessarily speak for these corporations participation in other cities and does not account for any other initiatives a company may have.

I playfully imagine these companies as those that came once, totally scandalized their poor unprepared office employees, and never even considered returning. Again, I know reality is more complicated than that. I'm just saying, here are some companies we would love to see again!

So regardless of the ethical and social implications that come with corporate sponsorship of pride, it is most likely here to stay. So enjoy it for what it is - get your swag, support a local queer friendly business, and make the most of Pride season 🙂

Code and data are here. Make sure to check out the other posts with this data here, and here!