Happy Pride From AT&T and the $1.8 Million It Gave to Anti-LGBTQ+ and Republican Candidates
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Pride is a time to celebrate and honor the LGBTQIA+ people who have fought for equal rights before the law—sometimes literally, like the crowds at Stonewall, who defended themselves against cops raiding the New York City gay bar 50 years ago this month.
But increasingly over the years, major corporations have inserted themselves into the Pride narrative, trying whatever they can to glom onto this cultural moment. Though the commercialization of Pride has its roots in the 1990s, it hit a fever pitch in the 2010s, when every June began to be marked by branded and rainbow-colored pandering as an exercise in shoring up consumers from the queer community. It would all be a fairly typical corporate virtue wash, yet some of these same companies also quietly give tens of thousands—if not millions—of dollars through their political PACs to Republicans who actively work against gay and trans rights.
Huge corporations like AT&T, Verizon, Johnson & Johnson, donate because they hope to get something out of it: whether it’s the positive marketing of a Pride float, or swearing in a politician they hope will deregulate their industry. But Pride only lasts a month, and, if elected, these politicians serve terms that last way longer than that. Corporations may be covering their bases—but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take notice.
We took a look at how much money corporations that are sponsoring Pride parades and touting pro-gay rights initiatives gave to Republicans candidates last year through their political PACs.
AT&T
In May, AT&T launched a partnership with the Trevor Project called #TurnUpTheLove. AT&T is now powering the organization’s crisis intervention hotlines—TrevorText and TrevorChat—24 hours a day, seven days a week. YouTuber Tyler Oakley is the face of this campaign, as we can see in this weird video above.In the 2018 election cycle, AT&T gave 61 percent of its total contributions to federal candidates—or roughly $1,800,000—to members of the Republican party: among them, Darin LaHood (R-IL), who opposed a bill banning anti-gay conversion therapy during his time in the Illinois state senate. Verizon donated roughly the same dollar amount to Republican candidates in 2016: $1,681,285.
PWC
PricewaterhouseCoopers is a Bronze-level sponsor of NYC Pride, which this year also celebrates the 50th anniversary of Stonewall.
It also donated $891,000 to Republican congressional candidates in the 2018 election cycle. According to the donation data on OpenSecrets, PWC’s largest donation to a congressional candidate went to Martha Roby (R-AL), who opposed same-sex marriage as recently as 2016.
Verizon
In addition to participating in pride parades in Baltimore, Houston, Columbus, Chicago, Boston, and Washington, DC, Verizon is donating $250,000 to PFLAG.
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