Pride Month 2022 is supposed to be a great time all throughout June. But how well can we celebrate it this year? Has the cynicism and corporatism finally caught up to the biggest celebration of LGBTQ+ rights in the world?
I don’t know. Probably? I sure don’t feel in the mood like 2 years ago, when I premiered that whole crossover comic strip. (You should read it.) I feel more in the mood that Pride Month is just another shopping holiday for companies to market themselves without making real statements.
Like, remember Disney? The company that did jack about the Don’t Say Gay bill until it was too late?
It feels so cowardly, so overtly pandering, that I can’t even begin to take it seriously.
And it’s been happening for a few years now, don’t get me wrong. But this is the first year where Pride Month started with more of a whimper than anything else. I feel it in the air; there’s no joy in Pride Month 2022.
It’s symptomatic of a larger problem in the way that social issues become politicized, then monetized. I could rant about that for several thousand words, but I honestly don’t have the energy and also it’d be terrible. Instead, I just have to wonder… If Pride Month 2022 is lost, then will 2023 be the same way? Is it gone for good?
Can it ever be reclaimed from the corporations?
This is another classic Thedude3445 blog deferral, but I don’t know. Pride Month 2022 could very well be the final straw that kills the unity for good. But it could also be the thing that sparks more genuine pride events in other ways.
It’s not like June has a complete stranglehold over LGBTQ+ events, after all. Tokyo’s Pride Parade is in April, and Atlanta’s isn’t even until October, just to name a couple examples. National Coming Out Day is in October, and all those nerdy anime and gaming conventions that bring out the queers happen all throughout the summer. There’s so many ways to bring together the community without having to deal with the obligatory June events and the corporate nonsense.
But, it is nice having a month to celebrate.
I’ll be going to Aomori’s own Pride Parade later this month, and if it’s exciting I might blog about it. But at least for the time being, I’m not going to out much stock in Pride Month 2022. A little, but not much. It’s a good excuse to be more open about my identity, but I’ll continue being skeptical about the whole month being dominated by corporate interests. It’s better to just have fun where we can find it than let them try to take it all over.
…This was a very unfocused blog post. Meh, maybe people like that kind of thing.
One thought on “Let’s Celebrate Pride Month 2022…?”