Anyone else feel Pride is really toned down this year?

[Moonandstarz]

I was shopping yesterday evening in my local shopping centre & besides Primark & Schuh no other stores had a pride window display or even a sticker on the window. Flying Tiger had rainbow merchandise on the window but not specifically pride.
Precious years we had rainbow crossings in the car park, rainbow flags everywhere. Nothing like that this year.

In my opinion this toned down pride is much more inclusive & is signalling everyone is getting on with their lives & co existing. May just be my area but I found it very refreshing.

And @Astralitzia has the absolute audacity to call me "ignorant", "naive" & question my comprehension skills!!

Every office I go to seems to have stacks of awful single use plastic pride (with the rainbow being pushed out by the T+++) available to take away. Pisses me off every time I see them (and I'm the client at these offices so I'm not sure if that is what they are aiming for with their female clients).

There's another way of looking at it, of course.

Which is that aggressive TRA is in no small part responsible for relegitimizing the misogyny and homophobia that less than a decade ago would have raised serious eyebrows had it been publicly uttered. Until that undesirable turnaround, those kinds of attitudes would have been viewed as positively antediluvian.

How quickly that minimal progress has done an about-face. And the turn definitely started in the wake of 2015, when Stonewall went full-on TQ, and brought us to where we are now.

I find ideas such as the 'cotton ceiling', the persecution of lesbians by loudly trumpeting activists merely for meeting and talking, or the dehumanizing language used to speak about women in general, to be particularly nasty symptoms of this shift. Not least the attempt to frame LGBA as a 'hate group' and strip away their charitable status, and the unpleasant backlash against 'Get the L Out' who (rightly, IMO), felt they'd been completely thrown under the bus by Stonewall and dared to take the liberty of voicing their displeasure.

@SerafinasGoose very well put.

Nrtft. Just been to local m&s, only saw one poster on the entrance. There was something on it about changing your Sparks card to make a donation to AKT(?). A very quick visit to the website, front page only and nothing noticeably Pride. Perhaps their cookies have id'd me as GC?

So, now, whenever you hear the phrase "LGBTQ+ hate crimes up" you are unable to differentiate between women being called hateful bigots for wanting protect their dignity and integrity as women, and actual attacks on gay men and lesbians.

When failure to use a non binary pronoun counts as a hate crime it makes a mockery of the stats. LGB hate crimes should be recorded separately imo.

I posted earlier about a hotel chain in Norway which had decided not to fly the rainbow flag this year. They capitulated within 24 hours. I suspect that next year, more than one chain might consider refusing. Few people like to be forced to do things.

When a political movement becomes effectively compulsory, there’s something gone very wrong. That’s why people are beginning to object in larger numbers, I believe. It’s one thing celebrating and being allowed to do so: overreaching to the point where there is over-saturation will drive people away and they will begin to object.

@PriOn1 yes it was really refreshing today to not be subjected to the usual plastic shite & flags flying all over. First time I'd been in town this month & to the shopping centre.
To me it means the lgb community has reached the point of inclusivity, acceptance & normalisation that there is no need to have a full on pride month.
Only a couple of years ago as I said upthread every single zebra crossing was painted rainbow.. Flags, banners, buntings, posters everywhere!!! Even the small little hardware shop had a flag & "love is love" banner. Nothing in the town this year, completely toned down & low key.

I’m not comparing the underlying ideologies, but I feel the same about Remembrance poppies. I’ve raised money for the Royal British Legion since I was 17 and I’ve given up whole weeks of annual leave to support them, so I am 100% behind the cause, but I hate that wearing the poppy has become compulsory for politicians and anyone in the media. Once you make it compulsory, it loses its meaning. It’s also ironic, as many of those who fought in WW1 became radicalised critics of the Establishment, as a result.

Sorry - that was to @PriOn1 . Is anyone else having problems with the quote function, when using their phone?

I feel exactly the same about the poppy. It's the compulsory note that's been introduced of late and the shaming of those without one that's made me determined not to wear one of these things again. It's not enough to support a cause - wearing a visible symbol of it (cf. the rainbow lanyards) seems to be a requirement, and the omission of the symbol alone is enough to evoke censorious disapproval. I'm not interested in being party to either the symbol-wearing or the censure.

Instead, I make a yearly online donation to the British Legion. It isn't the cause I object to on this particular occasion, it's the attitudes surrounding it. As for Stonewall, this is already far-too wealthy and powerful an organization and now the last 'charity' I'd support under any pretext.

Poppy Watch is an interesting Twitter account to follow!

Same reaction here to seeing that 'LGBT friendly' tag on things.

In fact, for the first time ever, I've started 'snoozing' for 30 days any company on Facebook that has changed their logo to the Pride logo colours.
I'm just sick of it all.
I used to be supportive/neutral but now that wretched flag just gives me the rage because of all the TQ+ issues associated with it.

Agree with this. They've overplayed their hand and now people have rainbow fatigue.

But I am bi, and have never felt LGB or the rainbow particularly spoke for me anyway. That's whilst recognizing myself as being a totally different species from 'lesbian', and that some of the prejudices and barriers lesbians have faced and continue to face are different from those I've typically encountered.

I will not wear the rainbow lanyard or announce 'my' pronouns. I'm sick of playing games of linguistic contortionism designed to diminish my status as a woman (of whatever sexual persuasion).

I owe my body, language and personal boundaries to precisely no one.

@SerafinasGoose very well said, sounds like you have a wonderful sense of yourself. You owe nothing to noone. You're also correct in saying they've overplayed their card with the rainbows, people have grown tired & bored.
My town was refreshing Wednesday evening not to see pride paraphernalia literally everywhere.

Agree with the avoidance of any companies displaying LGBT+ nonsense. Also books and TV etc. The moment a worthy mini lecture commences or an LGBT character is given jarring or unnecessary prominence, I am out.

I am a very regular theatre goer often buying early tickets before reviews are available. I deliberately avoid anything worthy where I fear that I will be lectured to, which rightly or wrongly includes much of the current LGBT offering. Much happier with plays that cause me to think and make my own mind up.

(Off topic but the run of Guys and Dolls at the Bridge has been extended. Go see! Patriots is also good.)

@BethDuttonsTwin it's funny, I bought dd aged 11 a dress & belt in River Island Wednesday evening just to support them not having any rainbow shite in sight...
Lovely crisp white & denim summer windows, not even a little sticker. Well done to them not virtue signalling especially when they have a younger target market..
Looks like plenty of other big brands have followed the same marketing strategy.. Primark are behind the trend on this one.

Agree but I am also aware from DCousin, who is a theatre producer, that all theatres that get public funding are under tremendous pressure to demonstrate 'diversity' - not actual diversity obviously, but homage to the TQ. So theatres end up putting on productions that they know are turds, in terms of ticket sales, because otherwise their funding is at risk. This has the effect of making them more and more dependent on the government for money, so bringing them further and further under state control.

Interesting. I usually buy tickets, often to half a dozen shows at a time, from TodayTix. Things I want to see often stay at full price, and at times it is necessary to book six months in advance.

I note that the "worthy" drama that I reject often remains unsold, with ever more desperate emails announcing ever deeper discounts. I did wonder why theatres kept on offering stuff where the market seems limited.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/07/pride-month-boycotts-target-bud-light-brands-companies

Interesting article.

https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/06/pride-month-brand-campaigns-for-them/

And another article "brands warned" is the headline here... But kudos to the brands which have not put virtue signalling o their windows & our local coffee shop, hairdressers etc. It's refreshing. Primark are the only brand which have a "campaign" this month, out of step with the highstreet.

They skipped past Oxfam, I see...

Plenty of negative press for Oxfam in this mornings papers. There are links in the Oxfam thread.

I spent a few hours in an NHS outpatients department yesterday. I did not see one Rainbow poster,lanyard,pin badge or anything Pride associated at all. Neither did anyone ask for my preferred pronouns or gender identity. Very unusual.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/13/lgbtq-influencers-pride-brands-boycotts-laws?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Definitely being toned down. Father's day is taking up all the marketing space in my town.