Choosing Family: The Importance of Pride Parades
- Joshua Borja
- Jan 3, 2021
- 13 min read
Updated: Jan 4, 2021
I am not member of either of the groups that I am analysing and critiquing. All thoughts are my own opinion. If you disagree with what I say or find something confusing, feel free to comment on the blog or on Facebook. Also, there will be spoilers for the film in this post. Please watch it if you haven't done so already - it is so worth it. It's on Netflix in Australia.
Joe blends into the crowd exiting a Tube station in London. His hair neatly combed. Long sleeve shirt and trousers perfectly pressed ("Thanks mum"). His shoes stepping into a small puddle. He's a little nervous and doesn’t want to slip up: he rarely goes into the city, let alone for his birthday, nor for this reason. The crowd is heading in one direction and he decides to follow the throng - some of which were holding banners - a birthday boy on his own.
~~~
"I'm gonna go out with some mates tomorrow from pastry school. Won't be back till late.” he tells his mother and father over dinner. He plays with three peas on his dinner plate carefully to avoid any suspicion of his true motive.
“Well, I guess that's okay.” His mother replies with a sigh “It is your birthday after all and you are an adult.”
“Son." His father's cutlerly clanks down onto plate, filling the silence with a sharp dissonant twang and his father looks at him right in the eyes. "There's that freak show happening tomorrow.” Joe looks down at his plate. He knew his father was going to be the issue as his face grows red with anger. “You sure you and your friends can protect yourselves from those queers?” Spit flies from the father's mouth as he emphasises the final word in his sentence, the 's' held like a snakes hiss.
His mother nods solemly, her eyes narrowing while she grabs Joe's hand under the table “Joe. Just be safe. Okay?”
“Yes... I will." Joe says quietly and the table goes quiet for a few seconds as everyone suddenly loses their appetite. “Should I bring out the cake I made?”
“Yes dear, that would be a lovely Black Forest gateau, right? Remember your dad can only have a small slice…” Joes excuses himself from the table as the conversation resumes.
They’ll never understand.
~~~
Joe trips over himself bringing himself out of his negative thoughts, and falling into a suited man holding a white banner, muttering something about Mark. Joe turns bright red and meekly says “Sorry…”
“You can make it up to me by holding this other pole…" the older man says as he looks Joe up and down, locking onto the badge his mother gave him this morning on his shirt pocket “…birthday boy. How old are you?”
“Twenty.” Joe replies.
“So you're illegal? Have some guts to appear here. Welcome to the fight.”
Pride parades (and the events that surround them) are important to our community as they ensure constant visibility of LGBTIQ people - especially for those that live in families such as Joe’s. The above is based off the scene in Pride (2014) which Joe, a closeted young man, is introduced to the audience via a scene similar to what's written above and is roped in to become part of the GLSM - in which he ended up needing that support from his chosen family to be able to flourish as a queer young man.
But this is what my mind connected with: I feel there is always a contentious issue about corporate sponsorship between the many Pride Parade organisations and their LGBTIQ communities - and the one that is close to my heart is the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (SGLMG). In these modern times, putting on a pride parade (and the festival that surrounds it) costs a lot of money - especially one that has a fortnight full of events, a parade that walking down should be on a LGBTIQ person's bucket list and a party that goes till the sun comes up (if you can get in, that is). Where does this money come from? 40% of SGLMG's revenue in 2019 was gained through sponsorship and was the major source of revenue for the organisation (source).
A collective of activists, Pride in Protest (PIP), do not approve of the ethics of some of these corporate entities which include ANZ, The Star and QANTAS (source). This is evident in the motions PIP advocated in the 2020 AGM, in which three of their eight motions were related to the mentioned corporate sponsors and how unethical they are (source).
The question is how can SGLMC, and more broadly pride organisations, balance the need of revenue to the needs of the community stakeholders and make management choices that effect the visibility of the pride parade to the wider audience. By looking at Joe's journey in the film Pride (2014) we can see why pride organisations create a starting point for the creation of ones' LGBTIQ family - but can make these funding decisions hard due to the emotions these stories bring. I will then give my opinion on the remit that these not-for-profit pride organisations have to corporate social responsibility of other for-profit businesses and what I see are the issues with PIP's AGM motions.
What going to a Pride Event can build
I think we have all heard a similar story to Joe’s - or at least a similar story about a families outward [fill blank here]phobia to a closeted LGBTIQ person. For most, they will need support to get out of the toxic and abusive family dynamic safely and soundly. For Joe, his journey went from finding his place in the world away from the ordinary to becoming a valued and supported member of the LGBTIQ community who they can depend on. So what things did I pull from Joe’s story that Pride Events built?
What am I?
There's a time when we start to question and query if we are normal. Although Joe kinda stumbled into the deep end in the film, the questioning and query turns into action - and a Pride Festival is a good and very safe place to start in that exploration. The people around him have always demonised the LGBTIQ community and that they are all horrible and immoral people. “Am I destined to be one of these people?” he would be asking himself on a regular basis.
Pride events allow for community members to break preconceived notions of what the LGBTIQ community is. Mark Ashton and his group of friends would show Joe that, although political in nature, there are LGBTIQ people out there that want to make the world a better place and with a good work ethic make things can happen, and that the community is misunderstood as they were doing real good work. We all know the community can be loving, sympathetic, inclusive and friendly, but aspects are still misunderstood. Sure, there might be some bad eggs, but Joe was lucky he was born in an age where basic human equality is what the community themselves were fighting for.
You are not alone
Being misunderstood can be a very lonely thought and is a solitary pursuit. When you think you are misunderstood you think that no-one will get you and you keep all those feelings inside. When you are LGBTIQ growing up in a heterosexual world, you feel even more alone especially in the times where it were illegal to be homosexual. Joe falling into a group and sharing stories and finding similarities is beneficial to start to understand that we are not alone - and that they have his back as seen when cream puffs made of choux pastry are given to him to keep up the illusion to his family.
When the Inevitable Comes…
There would be a point in time that the family would find out about Joe's sexuality - and it wasn't going to be pretty. When the book in which Joe had been scrapbooking his journey in is casually picked out of the shelf (which is a total invasion of his privacy), we all knew what was about to happen. However, all his friends were genuinely worried about him - while his family were scared of him and started to project their own fears on him as they want to live their perfect life and Joe was getting in the way:
It's such a terrible life Joe… Is that what you want?… Hiding from people at work -- from everyone. Keeping secrets.
- Joe's Mother
When Joe decides to leave, he did so when he knew that his chosen LGBTIQ family of the GLSM and now the miner families were still there to support him. Joe's biological family selfishly attempted to fix him only to alleviate their own fears. There was always going to be a bed for him available once he decided to take action - and at the end of the film, he was able to celebrate with his chosen family where he could be himself.
What Business is SGLMG's Business
There are a heap more things that Pride Festivals can bring than the three aforementioned points, all of which benefit the individual. However, this also creates a conflict for board in regards to fundraising decisions - “If we do any less than what we are currently doing, we will lose funding, Mardi Gras will end and it will be all my fault.” However, we know that times have changed since the ‘78ers - as NFPs are becoming more regulated over time, NFPs are becoming more business-like and have to start thinking more like a private business. To reach social aims, money has to be spent - an unfortunate side-effect of consumerism and capitalism.
There is a silver lining to this side-effect: consumers are looking for businesses that align to their social conscious. Thus, businesses in a way are starting to act more like NFP organisations (just with a lot of money). In the age of corporate social responsibility, businesses like ANZ, The Star Casino and QANTAS are looking at how they can ensure they reach their social component of their Triple Bottom Line. Then it's up to the community/savvy consumer to make up their own minds about their authenticity.
SGLMG perceived naïvete or selfishness to the value of CSR
So how can businesses project to individuals that they are dealing with being socially responsible without putting extra work into it. The easiest way is to give them money - or in other words corporate sponsorship. Then businesses don't need to do any of the hard work, they look good to the LGBTIQ audience, and they get access to the almighty pink dollar (and get a tax break to boot). There is potential for the Triple Bottom Line framework to be used in this way: maximise as much profit we can get by using the social and environmental aims as modifiers.
SGLMG should not be beholden to the money they receive from the organisation - their sponsors shareholders will be happy they have access to the pink dollar, making their shares stronger. Do the shareholders care about being visible in the parade - actually they wouldn't in the short-term because it would be at the expense of an immediate decrease in their shares as the business is spending money elsewhere. Don't get me wrong, I do agree that there is generous financial support given to those corporate sponsorships in the parade - without them, the parade would not run. The issue here is that in “respecting the contributions of Mardi Gras sponsors” (source), they are degrading other organisations' means of fundraising in the process, and is pretty selfish, if not naïve, to financial issues smaller organisations face in taking part in the Mardi Gras Parade.
Case study
A not-for-profit community group regularly frequents a for-profit venue on Oxford Street. Every week the pub host a BBQ cooked up in their kitchen for the organisation and the greater community, hold raffles for meat trays and other goodies the community group can bring in, discounted drinks all night. But most importantly gives the community group a space for themselves where they feel comfortable to go to each and every week and prevent social isolation from occuring within their community.
If you add up the dollar amount of these weekly donations of sorts, it comes to about $30,000/annum. For an organisation that only makes about $70,000 - that's a hell of a lot of money that doesn't appear in the financials. Sure, you can argue that the meat they pub serves is salty and makes people want to drink a beer. That the business will get it back in the long run and they wouldn't give it out if they didn't make it back. But for a public bar to allow an influx of people that are not usually celebrated in the Queer community a place for them to be is worth more than the $$$ and they should be recognised for their contribution publicly and proudly.
Community groups have to remember that “the important thing from [community group] supporters is their demonstration of support not [the business‘] brand” (from the 2019 parade guideline document). Do you know how small and insignificant a 60cm piece of corflute with a 15 word message on it and a 30cm logo looks like on an 6 tonne truck looks like? If we were to depict this on a 10cm line: 1 cm would be the signage, and the logo will be half a centimeter wide. Would that look supportive or be percieved as just an well intended afterthought? Yet, QANTAS can have a fabulous glittered giant rainbow plane tail - in which their demonstration of support directly links to the business and their brand, and longterm profitability. Is that fair?
Just like how SGLMG has to respect their financial supporters, why can't other NFP organisations that rely on financial supporters to get them to the parade - especially when these other organisations provide checks to SGLMG's own aims and objectives of their constitution. From this, I question who actually made the rules up on these sponsorship guidelines. Part of me wants to believe that they actually didn't consult the corporate sponsors about these guidelines and the board set the guidelines out of courtesy.
Look, I wouldn't want the parade to be a logo fest either - and a balance has to be figured out - but just because Mardi Gras has these sponsors shouldn't mean sponsors should get (seemingly - I don't know but from a glance as I'm running around) larger quotas and benefits during the parade AND get back what they give out in sponsorship while other Queer NFPs are limited by numbers marching and revenue making. Those restrictions limit the way NFP organisations may fundraise for their little part of fabulousness and help ensure SGLMG meet their aims and objectives.
At the end of the day, SGLMG has to recognise their worth as a large, proud Queer organisation. It's a tough gig balancing all of these different stakeholder groups, but large corporate entities are getting their money's worth just by having their logo next to Mardi Gras as SGLMG don't really get any clout by working with these sponsors, other than money. They don't need the extra benefits, and by redistributing these benefits to the other community groups may make Sydney's scene better and more cohesive. I also recognise that pulling these things back would be a very difficult job because of the reliance of this funding, but SGLMG values creativity, which makes me believe they can and will come up with a bespoke solution to diversify funding.
PIPs list of motions don’t actually fix the problems
It would be naive of us to think that equality is the only human rights issues that Queer people make spending decisions on. Environmental destruction, profiting from the addictions of others and a disregard to refugee rights are issues that should be dealt with - especially as Queer people are not immune to those issues. And good on PIP for bringing these issues up with the broader stakeholders. However, I query the motions that PIP are putting forward because there is no win-win situation between social impact and revenue which makes it a hard sell. Even worse, if they were going to be moved it actually doesn't fix the issues they bring up - in fact it's puts SGLMG in an even worse position to deal with these ethically dubious practices.
When I make a business decision, I always try to figure out a balanced win for both sides of the argument. Viewing PIP's 2020 AGM motions through the lens of corporate social responsibility, SGLMG with lose out on revenue making and on the organisations ability to make social impact. In particular, half of their motions negatively affect revenue streams (and of the remaining four motions, three of them are framed negatively) with no mention of how they would make up the funding or the effects of their motions on the parade. It frankly doesn't attract my attention - I like things framed positively - and shouts poor forward planning to me. You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar, even if the content itself is negative.
Then we actually go to actually fixing the problems PIP claims these organisations perpetuate if the motions passed this AGM. If SGLMG were to suddenly break contact with these organisations, they would lose all contact to try and change from within - or, in a more academic sense, lose access to insider-cooperative advocacy tactics - making it harder to enact change as having a variety of advocacy tactics is always useful. It also disenfranchises the LGBTIQ+ people within those organisations as it may feel like SGLMG is turning their back on them. And what would the sponsors do? Most likely shrug their shoulders and find a new cause to send money to. No skin off their nose. Someone will be happy to take their money - SGLMG is not the only special interest group out there.
Visibility through the ‘Protest or Parade’ Debate
Just like at the end of the film, the organisers of the London Pride Parade were faced with a choice - Protest or Parade? The fight for the miners and those successes were not immediately evident, and as HIV/AIDS was still ravaging the community people it would be nice to not think about politics just for a little bit. They wanted it to just be a parade first and foremost - activist organisations were still welcome, but at the end of the parade.
If Queer visibility of all shapes and sizes, we do have to make it a visual spectacle for media to actually follow the story. I personally wouldn't want to watch a three hour long protest on the television nor will I want to find these organisations that look all angry like. Would you want to join in on that “fun”? Would people travel all over the globe just to see a yearly protest to commemorate our Queer leaders? This hyper-produced event that shows off the diversity of queer Sydney and arguably Australia and has become a spectacle the world enjoys - and it wouldn't have been possible if not from the leadership of the organisation turning it from protest to parade.
Conclusion: The Façade of Capitalism
The “Protest or Parade” paradigm still holds true today but made more complex with an extra capitalism layer that modernity brings. If queer visibility is a component of these pride parades, we have to be able to sell the idea - from a social capital sense as well. For example, many queer people would have watched Mardi Gras on the television just to see what the fuss is all about and/or live in rural areas in which Sydney isn't just a train away. Sure, some of them might be watching for the gyrating muscular bodies or the hirsute masculinity of the bears, but I’d like to think there'd be some teenager in a rural community who had been bullied all their life that finds some solace in the fact there is a world out there to explore and accepts them.
As we know someone (it could even be ourselves) that has a similar lived experience as Joe, it can be difficult to make choices that may affect the grandeur that the previous versions of Mardi Gras we have lived through. If the glitz and glamour is what attracted them to their first Mardi Gras, then that tool should be preserved as a means to attract closeted queers from all ages and backgrounds.
However, One interpretation of PIP's list of motions is that though the impact of losing these sponsors would mean a smaller and much more reserved event, the lost revenue is much less important to the collective than ensuring a much more accessible and queer-friendly Mardi Gras, and more importantly, a more equitable world. Keeping these ideas in balance is the job of the board and it is no easy task. But there are people living like Joe at the start of the film currently - we as a community have to remember we all started from somewhere and visibility is important. That is and will always be our fight until we reach full equality.
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