This year’s Pride Month shift toward transgender advocacy, “family-friendly” drag shows and sexualized advertising is dividing some LGBT advocates as June draws to an end.
The growing Pride Month emphasis on the “T” in LGBT advocacy has come in response to recent laws in states such as Florida and Texas that restrict young people’s access to transgender resources like public school gender identity lessons and gender-altering medical treatments.
“Pride season always brings out creativity from marketers, with some dismay to gay consumers,” said Bob Witeck, president of the LGBT marketing firm Witeck Communications. “When the message uses sex in a specific way, it says to me that’s who they think I am.