It’s Pride month! Hooray!
For some reason, Columbia doesn’t do Pride until September. OK, we actually know the reason. It’s because the University of Missouri is not in session in June, and most of the students aren’t here. They’re spending the summer with their parents, typically, and will attend Pride events in that area, so it isn’t like they are missing Pride, exactly. And that gets down to the real reason Columbia’s Pride is in September — because that gives Boone County area vendors a chance to make a lot more money than they would have in June.
Rainbow capitalism. You can tell a lot about a person’s politics from their relationship to it:
Liberals love rainbow capitalism because they think including everyone in an orgy of consumerism is the pinnacle of human civilization. It’s the same thinking that leads them to conclude that the prison-industrial complex is OK, so long as the prison guards are diverse or at least reflect the same demographics as the prisoners. If only we had more trans drone pilots, right?
Conservatives love the capitalism but hate the rainbow, or rather, are very, very angry that the rainbow was stolen from Christianity, even though the actual story was originally Jewish and the phenomenon itself naturally precedes the formulation of either religious tradition (it would have been created at “Let there be light!” rather than at the end of the Flood). All rainbows should be Christian, you see, but now people with pronouns are displaying the rainbow and that’s wrong.
Leftists love the rainbow but hate the capitalism.
The first Pride was a riot. Rather than buying rainbow-themed merch, the authentic way to celebrate it would be to throw a brick at someone who is either violating your right to assemble or imposing their religious belief on your behavior (both are part of the First Amendment in the US). That would include anyone saying, “Oh, you can assemble, just not here, on public property,” or, “You can be gay as long as no one knows.”
Despite all that, me and my family will definitely be going in September (and we’re trying to figure out if we can attend Pride in KC or St. Louis this year). It’s great to see so many people who normally live in fear of some right-winger attacking them for their sexuality or gender expression having fun and being themselves. While the rainbow capitalism itself is gross, it is also reassuring because in the context of capitalism, support of the capitalist class for your particular marginalized group is the most important thing there is. When they decide they can’t suck any more value out of you, that’s when you’re in trouble.