We just got back from watching the pride march from the front steps of a Lutheran church on Christopher Street which now has a gay pastor. We were taken aback to see floats and contingents of marchers not just from the usual suspects like Chase and Bank of America, but also from Marriott and Walmart. I had seen how the march had become more commercial every year since I move to NYC in 1980. Back then it started in the Village and ended up in Central Park with a political rally. Now it starts uptown and ends in the Village with a big party and the most raucous floats are sponsored by bars and travel agencies. But the fact that more and more Republicans and big businesses are giving lip service to queer rights doesn't feel like a victory. It feels like co-optation of a movement.
It is now clear that marriage equality and gay and lesbian rights (if not rights for the full queer spectrum) will soon be the law of the land. So now DINOs like Andrew Cuomo, business-friendly Republicans, and consumer-oriented businesses realize that they will eventually need to adapt and calculate that, if they jump on the bandwagon a few months early, they can buy enough cred to whitewash their other sins. In the case of Marriott, it may be that the Mormon owner of the company is somewhat sincere, but there is every reason to doubt the conversion of Walmart to the cause. The fact remains, however, that neither case represents a true political commitment. These are cases of commercial self-interest cloaking itself in a mantle of virtue. When these companies start paying decent wages and stop funding right wing political actions, I will be more willing to celebrate them.