June marked the beginning of Pride Month, here in the U.S, and even now in the beginning of July Pride events are continuing to arise in full blast. Parades, parties, and general commemorations of the LGBT community and the increasing visibility of the movement provide a moment of reprieve and reverence for LGBT+ members. Many of these events mark the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots – an event which is hailed as the beginning of the LGBT+ movement itself.
With the growing popularity of the movement in mainstream outlets, its virtually inevitable that corporate giants of all industries will see this as a potential money maker. I, personally, have nothing particularly wrong with Pride clothing, jewelry, or other memorabilia marketed towards LGBT+ individuals who are looking for ways to outwardly express their identity. After all, there is no shame with wearing your identity on your sleeve and being proud. However, there has been a certain rise of problematic marketing that uses the LGBT+ movement and community to create the facade of allyship with the sole intention of turning a buck, not in actually supporting the real issues the community faces. This form of profiteering is not only ignorant in execution, but also harmful and supports the erasure of pertinent LGBT+ issues, which are already commonly erased at the hands of the mainstream “liberal” media.
The particular incident that has sparked my irritation at the moment is likely familiar to you; recently Burger King has announced its so-called “Proud Whopper”, which features a rainbow wrapper – wow! – and has the words “We are all the same inside.” Perfect for every out and proud LGBT+ member and their allies, right? Wrong. And I’m going to breakdown why, because there’s a lot here that bothers me.
Erasure of Violence*
In the cheery and rosy-coloured world of cisheteronormativity, the primary worry of the average non-heterosexual or trans* person is the issue of gay marriage. Those pesky “gays” are all about their marriage rights and acceptance. While same-sex marriage – a term which can come with its own problematic connotations within the LGBT+ community – is an important facet of rights for LGBT+ individuals, it is by no means the most important, nor the most pressing, issue.
Violence, both systematic and personal, is commonly inflicted on LGBT+ individuals of all ages. The current political and social climate virulently affirms a whirlwind of perpetual anti-LGBT+ hate. For far too many people we are considered a philosophical debate, or a ideological dilemma – but we are neither! We are here, we are people, and we have real problems with real violence now.
Statistically speaking, LGBT+ children are twice as likely to face assault or emotional and physical abuse at school by peers and teachers alike (Human Rights Campaign, 2013). In fact, LGBT+ youth consists of 20-40% of all homeless youth in America – which equates to roughly 320,000 to 400,000 minors a year – and they will continue to face higher poverty levels than their heterosexual and cis gender counterparts throughout their entire lives (Williams Institute, 2012). Even worse is the fact that these youths are abused at a rate of 58% while homeless, compared to 33% for their heterosexual and cis gender peers (University of Nebraska). The chilling reality is that 62% of these homeless LGBT+ children are on the streets due to family discrimination or being outright kicked out of their homes (Center for American Progress, 2013).
And these are just instances that are youth specific, while adults face just as much – if not in some cases, more – discrimination, since they are expected to integrate with society and blend in. LGBT+ adults face threats such as: hate crimes, of which gender identity and sexual identity consisted of 20% in 2010 (Federal Bureau of Information), work place discrimination, housing discrimination, increased levels of physical and sexual violence – “corrective” rape is still alive and well! – increased income insecurity and poverty, higher risk of serious mental health problems including suicidal ideation, and legal discrimination through anti-LGBT laws. All this while being lovingly embraced by a religious community who consistently shoves a Bible into our faces to tell us how our very existence is immoral and will earn us eternal damnation! Hurray, compassion.
This is not something we can simply wish away, nor will it be magically dispelled by marriage rights and pro-LGBT+ wrappers. We need people to be educated and prepared to fight against the many forms of discrimination and abuse that those within the LGBT+ community face. We need our voices to be heard, and not spoken over by supposed “heterosexual allies”.
Erasure of Identity – “We are all the same inside.”
No. No we aren’t, and this is a seriously problematic line to use as your supposedly “pro-LGBT” quote. Of all the quotes they could’ve chosen by prominent or influential members of the LGBT community, Burger King chose one that is most commonly used to erase the unique identities of those they intend to be supporting.
This phrase is commonly seen in variations such as:
“We all bleed red.”
“We’re all human.”
and
“Just be kind/nice/love everyone!”
These are seriously problematic in that they serve to erase the specific issues that are directly related to a person’s identity – be it race, gender, sexuality, religion, disability, etc. While on the face of it, these phrases appear to be positive and inclusive, in actuality they only serve to further affirm the status quo and silence dissenting minority voices – framing them as “difficult” or “supporting hate”.
The reality of it is this: we are not all the same inside. Inside is where we hold our personal identities, the things that make us who we are and unique. Inside is where we keep our faith, our morals, our experiences, our relationships, our immutable qualities. Inside is the very core of who we are, and we are not all the same neither on the inside nor the outside!
I understand fully that Burger King is attempting to say, “We are all human, so we should all be treated with equal respect.” But that isn’t what the quote says, nor is that effective in of itself. The LGBT+ movement is not just about respect, it is about the right and the necessity to access resources that are currently reserved for only heterosexual and cis gender individuals. It is about pointing out and deconstructing the harmful systems and related stereotypes that work to classify us as deviants or abnormalities on the face of humanity. To chalk all the effort and danger – because, yes, many LGBT+ activists are murdered or physically harmed – to “respect one another” is downright insulting to everything generations of LGBT+ activists have worked for and lived through.
The Senior Vice President of global brand managing, Fernando Machado, was quoted as saying “It shows how we, as a brand, promotes self-expression.” Your gender identity and sexual identity are not forms of self-expression. Self expression is wearing your socks so they don’t match. Self-expression is dying your hair crazy colors. Self-expression is doing your make up so you look like a robot every day. Gender and sexuality are identities, they are part of our personhood. They are a part of how we navigate and perceive the world. They are immutable characteristics. They are not forms of self-expression.
As Alan Hooker, twitter handle @awhooker, stated eloquently on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/awhooker/statuses/484391953547948032
Profiteering The Movement, The Voices, The Pain
In the end, all Burger King has succeeded in doing is taking all of the LGBT+ movement’s pain and effort, and exploited it into something to capitalize on to sell their product. They don’t care one bit about the quality of life of LGBT+ individuals, nor about the real life dangers they experience on a regular basis. Burger King is using the LGBT+ community as a spring board to promote their product, all while speaking over the voices and the true purpose of Pride month and events.
Pride is not just about celebrating our differences. Pride is not just about being proud of who we are. Yes, these are factors in Pride, but this is not the essence of it. While different people from within the community may interpret Pride in a manner unique unto themselves, in the end Pride is our platform. It is the one time that everyone from the LGBTQQIPA community can come together and know that they are in a safe place, surrounded by people with similar qualities. We are unique, there is no chance of denying that, but we are all united under the reality that our gender identities or sexual identities are constantly being erased, attacked, and denied. It is the one time when we can all come together and talk, in person, about things that matter to us. When we can see people like ourselves en masse. When we know we are not alone!
In spite of all the violence. In spite of all the pain. We are here. We are alive. We are united.
But Burger King has chosen to take this and turn it into a reductive and exploitative publicity stunt to raise sales. Regardless if they are intending to donate parts of their profit from the sales to LGBT+ organizations, this stunt is still for their profit margins and still harmful.
You know what would’ve been far more impressive? It would’ve been far more impressive if Burger King chose to dedicate the money they spent on rainbow colored wrappers instead towards getting resources to help their LGBT+ staff. Or, perhaps, invested in inclusivity training, since things like misgendering and LGBT+ slurs are still extremely pervasive within the work place. Or work on strategies with your employees to reduce the amount of harassment and abuse they receive from customers, and how you, as an employer, can help make the workplace safer for them. Even better, they could raise the wage of their minimum wage workers so that LGBT workers could afford to live without requiring multiple jobs, since – after all – they suffer disproportionally from poverty and high drop out rates.
At the end of the day: thanks but no thanks, Burger King. You should not be Proud about that Whopper.
*Please note: other intersections of oppression, such as race, greatly contributes to problems of systematic and personal violence for LGBT+ individuals. While this piece does not explicitly delve into this reality in detail, it is always important to keep in mind that there are multidimensional factors that can exacerbate the amount of discrimination and violence a member of the LGBT+ community faces.
Sources:
Chen, Xiaojin, and Hoyt, Dan R. et al. “Mental Disorder, Subsistence Strategies, and Victimization among Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Homeless and Runaway Adolescents.” Journal of Sex Research 41.4 (2004): 329-342. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/sociologyfacpub/53. Web. 2 July 2014.
No author. “Gay and Transgender Youth Homelessness by the Numbers.” Center for American Progress. N.p., 21 June 2010. Web. 1 July 2014. <http://americanprogress.org/issues/lgbt/news/2010/06/21/7980/gay-and-transgender-youth-homelessness-by-the-numbers/>.
No author.”Growing Up LGBT in America: View Statistics.” Human Rights Campaign. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 July 2014. <http://www.hrc.org/youth/view-statistics#.U7TE77FMwbZ>.
Sears, Brad, and Badgett, Lee. “Beyond Stereotypes: Poverty in the LGBT Community.” Williams Institute. University of California, 1 June 2012. Web. 2 July 2014. <http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/headlines/beyond-stereotypes-poverty-in-the-lgbt-community/>.
Neural Tempest 