The happy gay mascots of 2010
Noplace?
8:59 am Jun. 28, 20103
“This is the smallest bed at the hotel,” said a buff guy with a fleur-de-lys ankle tattoo, gesturing at a white upholstered bed that could only be described as orgy-sized, under a tent at the "festival" that marked the end of march for the Gay Pride … procession, yesterday. (The leadership is sensitive: this is not a "parade.") He was running one of countless tents in the area where the march let off in the West Village, shilling. Several shirtless men were jumping up and down on the demo bed. “There’ll be five-person showers,” the buff guy added.
The big beds and bigger showers are features of the G, a hotel outside of Fort Lauderdale scheduled to open next year. It will be the flagship property of G Worldwide, which calls itself “the first-ever LGBT Luxury Lifestyle Resort Collection Brand.” G Worldwide was in the city yesterday to pitch itself to the gays at New York Pride, and it pulled out all the stops: a float and free giveaways during the march down Fifth Avenue; a tent (featuring the bed) on Hudson Street for the PrideFest street fair afterwards.
G Worldwide wasn’t the only game in town. These days it's a competitive thing, to bring your product here. Crain’s reported earlier this month that corporate spending on the event increased 300 percent over last year, much of it from companies that had never before participated, from AOL to Ford to Petco to Puma. Not only do these companies and their employees get to march, but they get coveted spots at PrideFest, the marketing festival that caps off the march, and special tailor-made incentives (Petco, for example, sponsored PetPride, in which gay-owned animals were judged by Michael Musto). When people arrived at PrideFest, they were greeted by Mimi Imfurst, a drag queen wearing huge earrings bearing the Zipcar logo.
The organizers take pride in the involvement of big corporate sponsors. And the presence of government officials at the parade is a given in New York politics. But in the last year it’s become impossible to see the politics as the main event through all the corporate strategy. And why shouldn't the politicians be hiding?
EARLY LAST JUNE, JUST IN TIME for the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, Tom Duane, the openly gay state senator who sponsored a marriage equality bill, announced that he’d received assurances of support from more than 32 senators, the number required for the bill’s passage. Victory on the issue would have made for one of the most joyous Prides ever.
A week later, though, came a bizarre leadership crisis—featuring a short-lived party switch by two Democratic state senators, Hiram Monserrate and Pedro Espada Jr.—that put the Senate's Democratic leadership into chaos and pushed marriage equality off the agenda. In the fall, under pressure from LGBT organizations like Empire State Pride Agenda, Duane and the Democratic leaders agreed to put the bill to a vote. But conservatives had good results in the November election, spooking on-the-fence Democrats. And with a state fiscal crisis looming, moderate Republicans weren’t inclined to make a difficult vote on a divisive social issue. The bill was soundly defeated on December 2. Nothing to celebrate there.
Heritage of Pride, the organization that runs all this, is sensitive about calling it a “parade.” It’s a “march.” But it’s not an angry march: look how much fun everyone seems to be having! And, certainly, it’s not a victory march.
But in the crowds, nobody seemed that worried.
“When I moved to New York in 1990, none of them would sponsor anything,” said Jon Winkleman, 42, a gay activist from Queens. “And then in 1991 or ’92, Naya, this defunct water company, was the first non-gay, non-porn commercial company to sponsor Pride, and everyone was drinking Naya. I remember it was in 1991 or 1992 when Absolut Vodka took out an ad in The Advocate, and it was the first time a major company did that.”
Corporate sponsorship of the gays has come a long way since then. Some companies have doubtless been inspired by the fight for social justice, but others saw—and still see—the simple fact that gays, disproportionately, have money and are willing to spend it. “We’ve been hit by the recession in advertising,” said a 32-year-old director of gay-media advertising sales named David. “But the larger marketing community has never been more supportive of us. Financial institutions, banks: they see the value of our community, the spending power of our community.”
The new frontier is cause-related marketing. Not only can companies march and sponsor booths, but they can synergistically partner with LGBT organizations.
But in the last year it’s become impossible to see the politics as the main event through all the corporate strategy.
Unsurprisingly, ZW, a well-written and thoughtful article, but I'm puzzled by the idea that this is particularly recent. Highlighted now, maybe, by the political failures you mention, but I think I can attest to the last decade's discouraging signal to noise ratio. Others may correct my estimate upward, who knows...
While I don't altogether regret the way the community has used corporations' eagerness for new markets to wrangle a certain kind of public acceptance, I guess what we have here begins at times to look like a master's tools/master's house situation.
i agree that the commercialization of pride isn't a recent phenomenon. but it is, as you say, highlighted by the particular circumstances this year. the questions of what we're marching for and what we're celebrating should have been front and center, and weren't, largely because it's a corporate event.
capital: this is how new york works!