Listen, I hate corporate pride. Companies spend the month of June superficially pandering to the queer community…and then spend the rest of the year in silence or in active support of anti-LGBTQ legislation and politicians. Take a look at the political campaigns they fund, and it’s not hard to see that these companies don’t actually care about the issues they pay lip service to.

But some people seem to hate corporate pride from a completely different perspective. They fear their beloved chains have been lost to the “gay agenda.” To this select group of people, rainbow logos and vague words of support are evidence of the woke mob infecting America.

It takes a special kind of homophobia to hate even transparent corporate pandering. I mean, come on, it’s painfully obvious most of these companies don’t actually care about queer people. They’ve just done the calculus that the social capital they gain from pretending to care about LGBTQ people benefits their bottom lines.

After all, where were these companies and their rainbow flags a decade ago? They waited to back LGBTQ people until the social tides changed and doing so posed minimal risk, or even gain, to their businesses. Their support is not a sign of altruism or genuine solidarity, but of self-interest.

Take Toyota, which, despite sponsoring pride celebrations, has donated over half a million dollars to politicians pushing anti-LGBTQ legislation, according to progressive think tank Data for Progress.

Many companies are the same. AT&T similarly sponsors pride events, but donated over $300,000 to anti-LGBTQ politicians, according to the same data analysis. Amazon, Comcast, FedEx and State Farm are other companies that top the list of donations while publicly claiming to back the LGBTQ community.

Companies donate to politicians that will support policies that advance their financial interests. If those politicians also happen to push legislation that harms the LGBTQ community, those corporations don’t really care because their support was never genuine in the first place. All that matters to these companies is that they can put on a public face embracing queer people.

Companies did the same thing with Black Lives Matter. They paid lip service but didn’t actually care about the issues—and some conservatives still lost their minds over it.

It’s a vicious cycle that’s not going to stop anytime soon. If companies see an opportunity to capitalize on social issues, they will. But the moment it goes against their material interests, their purported morals are nowhere to be seen. It’s not surprising, but still worthy of calling out.

So for those that despise corporate pride from the opposite side of things, you really have nothing to worry about. Your beloved companies are just as apathetic as ever.
Claire Sullivan is a 19-year-old coastal environmental science and political communication junior from Southbury, CT.