+
A PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM UPWORTHY
We are a small, independent media company on a mission to share the best of humanity with the world.
If you think the work we do matters, pre-ordering a copy of our first book would make a huge difference in helping us succeed.
GOOD PEOPLE Book
upworthy

lgbtq rights

Identity

BMW is taking heat from both liberals and conservatives over alleged Pride Month hypocrisy

Is it activism or rainbow washing?

via BMW Group Press

A Pride Month press photo from BMW.

June is Pride Month in many countries, including the U.S. Canada, Australia, Brazil, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom. It’s an entire month dedicated to uplifting LGBTQ voices and celebrating their culture, history and rights.

It’s also a time of year when anti-LGBTQ voices can be the loudest, as evidenced last year by boycotts of major companies such as Target, Kohls, North Face and Anheuser Busch.

And speaking of major companies, Pride Month also erupts in rainbow colors on social media when major brands and corporations give their logos Pride-themed makeovers. However, this doesn’t sit well with some LGBTQ activists who see this as rainbow washing or disingenuously using Pride branding for their gain or to give themselves a deceptive air of often-derided as " virtue signaling ."

In 2024, it also seems rather perfunctory for major companies to celebrate Pride Month, because failure to do so could result in them being accused of bigotry.

It’s commendable when companies use their capital and platforms to generously and genuinely support LGBTQ organizations. But there’s something duplicitous about companies that jump on the bandwagon during Pride Month to curry favor with those who support LGBTQ rights and do little more.

One major company is getting called out by liberals and conservatives alike during Pride Month for very different reasons. BMW is taking heat from LGBTQ rights supporters for its public admission that it doesn’t celebrate Pride in the Middle East because of “cultural aspects.” Many right-wing people on Twitter who don’t support Pride Month are enjoying the schadenfreude of seeing a company openly admit to empty virtue signaling.

It all started when someone on Twitter asked why BMW doesn’t turn its logo rainbow-colored for its Middle Eastern Twitter feed during Pride Month. “How come you don't proudly display your logos pride colors on your Middle East posts ???” they asked.

The car company’s response was cold and corporate. “This is an established practice at the BMW Group, which also takes into consideration market-specific legal regulations and country-specific cultural aspects,” BMW’s Twitter account responded.

The response begged a big question: If you don’t support LGBTQ rights in places where they are persecuted, do you really support them at all? In some countries in the Middle East, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, LGBTQ people can be punished by death.

Many accused BMW of hypocrisy for only supporting gay rights where it's good for business.

Many thought that if BMW genuinely cared about LGBTQ rights, it would promote them where it matters most.

Some thought that BMW’s Pride Month logo gesture was rendered meaningless by its approach to the Middle East.

The fact that U.S. companies converted their logos to rainbow-themed during Price Month shows how far this country has come in the last 55 years since the Stonewall Riot kicked off the LGBTQ movement in the U.S. in 1969. However, the fact that companies are afraid to change their logos to rainbow-colored in some parts of the world shows how far we still have to go to guarantee those same rights across the globe.

From Your Site Articles
lgbtq rights
Identity

Nine out of 10 Americans now believe that LGBTQ people should live without discrimination

A few folks may be boycotting beer. But nearly all of us want equality.

via Rosemary Ketchum/Pexels

Love is love. Enough said.

There have been numerous high-profile controversies surrounding LGBTQ rights recently that make it appear as though there has been a considerable backlash in acceptance of the LGBTQ community among Americans.

There’s the Bud Light backlash after the popular beer brand used trans activist Dylan Mulvaney as a spokesperson. There was an uproar after the Los Angeles Dodgers agreed to honor the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence on LGBTQ Pride Night. There has also been an ongoing controversy surrounding Target selling LGBTQ-friendly merchandise.

Clearly, if people are getting riled up over the normalization of LGBTQ culture throughout America, we must be amid a considerable backlash, right? In reality, the truth is the exact opposite.

A new poll by GLAAD has found that non-LGBTQ Americans are more accepting of the LGBTQ community than ever and want them to be treated like everyone else. So, even though there is a loud contingent of political activists pushing back against LGBTQ progress, they don’t seem to significantly impact the growing movement toward acceptance.

Simply put, the opposition to LGBTQ people may be loud, but it’s only getting smaller.

The survey of over 25,000 non-LGBTQ Americans found three encouraging facts:

  • A 96% supermajority of non-LGBTQ Americans agree that school should be a safe and accepting place for all youth.
  • A 91% supermajority of non-LGBTQ Americans agree that LGBTQ people should have the freedom to live their lives and not be discriminated against.
  • An 84% supermajority of non-LGBTQ Americans support equal rights for the LGBTQ community.

The study also found that despite outrage over Dylan Mulvaney appearing in a Bud Light promotion, the vast majority of Americans are okay with seeing LGBTQ people and families represented in the media.

This corresponds with the fact that on the 2021 to 2022 TV season nearly 12% of all regular characters on prime-time television were LGBTQ. That’s a sea change over the 2005 to 2006 report that found only 2% of all characters were LGBTQ.

  • 75% of non-LGBTQ adults feel comfortable seeing LGBTQ people in advertisements.
  • 73% of non-LGBTQ adults report feeling comfortable seeing LGBTQ characters included in TV shows or movies.
  • 68% of non-LGBTQ adults feel comfortable seeing an LGBTQ family with children included in an advertisement.

The strange state of affairs in America is that even though an increasing number of Americans want LGBTQ people to have equal rights, there has been a staggering number of new laws aimed at disenfranchising them that have been proposed over the past three years.

GLAAD estimates that over 500-plus anti-LGBTQ laws have been proposed in 2023 alone.

“Support for LGBTQ equality has reached an all-time high, but allyship must turn into action,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. “Media, content creators, and corporate leaders need to lead and respond to hate with undeterred support for the LGBTQ community, including LGBTQ employees, shareholders and consumers. Allyship is not easy, but when values of diversity, equity, and inclusion are tested, we must defend them unequivocally."

From Your Site Articles
lgbtq rights
Identity

Pennsylvania House unites in vote to erase 'homosexuality' from the state's criminal code

The vote was a unanimous 198-0.

Photo by Katherine McAdoo on Unsplash

Pennsylvania lawmakers voted to erase "homosexuality" from state criminal codes.

Despite major strides in the fight for LGBTQIA+ rights, there is always something else to fight for. Sometimes, it's creating new changes to make things a little bit safer for people. But sometimes, it's about looking back in the past and seeing how existing laws and beliefs could still harm people. Changing the way we talk about members of the community is one of the easiest ways to reduce harm, and it looks like politicians in Pennsylvania have realized that.

Recently, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives voted to erase the word "homosexuality" from the definition of prohibited acts in the state's Crimes Code. The Associated Press reported a unanimous 198-0 vote was on a bill to clean up outdated language, because, as the supporters of the change rightfully pointed out, it's not a crime to be gay.

“This bill provides a long overdue update to our crimes code to ensure nobody is prosecuted because of who they love,” said the sponsor of the bill, Rep. Todd Stephens (R-Montgomery), as reported by the Associated Press .

Stephens introduced the bill in November 2021 intending to "remove references to the term "homosexuality" within definitions of prohibited sexual acts within state law," according to an article from Patch .

"The usage of this term in the definitions of 'sexual activity' and 'sexual conduct' in Sections 5902 (relating to prostitution) and 5903 (relating to child pornography), respectively, serves no purpose as homosexual acts, in and of themselves, do not constitute a criminal offense, " Stephens wrote in a co-sponsorship memo.

It is important to point out the significance of sodomy laws in the United States. Though they existed for basically as long as the country has, for much of the 19th and 20th centuries they were used specifically to target members of the LGBTQIA+ community. This is especially true regarding cisgender gay men and trans women. The use of sodomy laws against the LGBTQIA+ community became prominent (to the point where several states rewrote their laws to specifically target the community) in the late 1960s/early 1970s as the gay rights movement began to grow and take shape.

In a place like Pennsylvania, while the laws weren't rewritten to explicitly target gay people, those in charge targeted only gay people. Many of these laws don't exist anymore, but remnants of them still remain. That's why this language change in Pennsylvania is so important. It legitimizes the LGBTQ+ community lawfully, even though they will still face discrimination and unfair treatment via the law. But changing that language gives people a stronger case when they have to fight back.

Rep. Dan Frankel, a Democrat from Allegheny County, has been fighting for a long time to expand nondiscrimination protections to the LGBTQ+ community. According to the Associated Press , he said the language of the current law is “cruel and absurd” and urged his fellow lawmakers to make moves regarding anti-discrimination legislation.

“In this General Assembly, sadly, it’s a huge lift to merely agree that being gay shouldn’t be illegal,” said Frankel.

The current bill cuts "homosexuality" from a section on “obscene and other sexual materials and performances" by removing it from the definition of sexual conduct, per AP.

Frankel isn't the only one who thinks these laws are not only archaic, but also unfair. Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D-Philadelphia) points out that these current laws openly discriminate and keep people from holding down jobs, owning homes or having families “simply because of who they are and who they love.”

“I hope that we have these same votes for enshrining nondiscrimination protections, which we sorely need to do,” Kenyatta said .

Hopefully, this leads to more positive change, not just in Pennsylvania, but in other places where such language still likely exists.

From Your Site Articles
pennsylvania
Equality

San Francisco unveils major plan to combat homelessness amongst city's transgender community

America's housing crisis needs more creative solutions like this.

Image collage via Wikicommons

San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced a new plan to combat homelessness amongst the transgender community

Home is somewhere to lay your head down at night without worry that someone will steal all of your worldly possessions. Home is where people start families and make lifelong memories. Having a place to go home to every night is safety. Safety from the elements and safety from other people who may mean you harm.

And there's almost nothing more quintessentially American than owning a home. Yet, the reality is America does poorly with keeping people housed. Homelessness is a growing problem across the country, especially with the lack of affordable housing and wages that don’t always meet the minimum basic needs.

And the rates of homelessness among transgender people are higher than average with 8% of trans adults experiencing homelessness compared to 1% of cisgender straight adults, according to UCLA School of Law Williams Institute .

To help remedy the problem in her city, the mayor of San Francisco, London Breed, announced a plan to allocate $6.5 million toward an initiative to end homelessness of transgender people in the city.

The multiyear plan would see an end to trans homelessness by 2027. Transgender people face more discrimination , including when securing housing, than their cisgender counterparts. While this is unfair, it’s not particularly surprising when you consider the legislation around what bathrooms trans people can use. It’s not a far reach to assume they likely have difficulty finding a homeless shelter that will accept them based on their identified gender. Safety would also be a large component even if there was no discrimination in sheltering trans individuals.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

"Transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming San Franciscans are 18 times more likely to experience homelessness compared to the general population, and we know that the rates are even higher for our minority trans communities, " Breed said in a statement . "With one of the largest TGNC populations in the country, we not only must ensure that all San Franciscans have access to housing and essential resources through continued investments, but we can show the country that we continue to be a leader on supporting and protecting our trans communities."

America has not been kind to gender nonconforming people, especially people that identify as trans. It almost seems like it's acceptable to treat transgender people poorly. It needs to stop. If we are silent when injustice is present, our silence is the loudest voice in the room.

Photo by Delia Giandeini on Unsplash

Breed’s proposed plan would include at least 150 long-term housing subsidies through the city's already established Flexible Housing Subsidy Pool program. It would also fund short-term rental subsidies, flexible financial assistance and support to build the capacity of nonprofits serving transgender and gender nonconforming people. The budget plan is extensive and will include planning for housing for LGBTQ youth who are at a transitional age.

Housing should not be reserved for those who society deems appropriate based on lack of knowledge and biases. Transgender people who are experiencing homelessness deserve a place to call home just as much as the next person. It’s not clear if this announcement was timed just in time for Pride Month, but it sure feels fitting.

From Your Site Articles
lgbtq rights
Trending Stories