This year, as WEHOville noted in their recap of the event, the parade was “dominated largely by floats from corporate sponsors” including, yes, Wells Fargo.īy now, the commercialization of LGBT Pride seems like an age-old topic of debate-even though it wasn’t that long ago, in the grand scheme of things, that none of these companies would want to be seen touching anything queer with a ten-foot pole.
Last year, the LGBT march in Los Angeles took on an anti-Trump theme, prompting longtime corporate sponsors like Wells Fargo to get cold feet, as FourTwoNine reported. The first Chicago Pride protest in 1970 specifically targeted the Michigan Avenue shopping district, as the Chicago Tribune reported, in order to “reach the maximum number of… shoppers and tourists.” Today, retailers and airlines march in the Chicago Pride Parade. Today, NYC Pride Week has about six dozen corporate sponsors, including some of the country’s largest banks and stores. The first New York City Pride march in 1970 was a grassroots affair organized in a gay bookstore to mark the anniversary of a riot.
