It's Pride Month, so haters gonna hate

It’s officially LGBTQIA+ Pride Month, and bigots across the country are making themselves heard. Marriage equality and anti-discrimination laws have strong majority support, but despite that—or maybe because of it—some of the highest-profile stories as Pride approached have been about hatred and threats.

In recent months, bigots have thrown massive fits over Bud Light featuring a trans influencer in an Instagram post and Target featuring Pride merchandise, claiming they’re showing their own cultural power by boycotting brands that dare to acknowledge the existence, let alone the equal rights, of LGBTQ+ people. But what they’re really showing is how ready they are to resort to violence. Target pulled some merchandise and relocated Pride displays in some stores—not because the market demanded it, but because of threats of violence toward employees, threatening social media posts, and Pride displays being knocked down.

What we have, on the one hand, is major corporations deciding it’s good business to celebrate Pride (by selling stuff), and on the other hand, a minority using the threat of violence to keep those corporations from celebrating Pride. It’s clear which side public opinion is on. The challenge now is preventing corporations from folding to the threats.