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| Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council |
From Perkins by the way of JoeMyGod:
Pride Month is off to a faltering start again this year as yet another red state ditches the month-long celebration of LGBT depravity in favor of family values. Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) signed a proclamation declaring June to be “Fidelity Month” in her state. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee (R) also rejected Pride Month, declaring June instead to be “Nuclear Family Month” in the Volunteer State.Last year, The Washington Stand reported that corporate sponsorship for Pride Month events was scaling back dramatically in the wake of President Donald Trump’s return to the White House and the previous months of crippling boycotts targeting companies that made LGBT themes central to their marketing. The evaporating corporate sponsorship impacted public-facing Pride Month initiatives, with LGBT parades and events in major cities facing serious reductions.2026 is on track for much of the same. According to a report from NPR, corporate sponsorship for 2026 Pride Month events is declining even further, falling by an estimated 60% to 70% from years past. Organizers pointed to the Trump White House and its agenda targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and pro-transgenderism programs and the public backlash against LGBT events, marketing, and sponsorship as causes for the reduced corporate involvement in Pride Month this year.
Trump's return to office have made things a bit more difficult. Between his administration targeting our community and his supporters feeling empowered to target businesses who voice support for us, there is no question that corporate sponsorships are suffering for now.
No doubt Perkins and his supporters are clapping their hands in glee over this development, but as dire as it seems for us, corporate sponsorships were always a transactional relationship. As much as our community is grateful for these sponsorships, we've never been deceived that companies wanting to sponsor our Pride events came from a desire to market themselves to a demographic - in this case us. And situations like this have a way of changing like ocean tides. Just as sure as potential corporate sponsors are wary of us now, that can always change in time. And it will.
Perkins is fooling his followers and probably himself. Even his attempt to claim that red state governors are trolling us with their proclamations is laughable.
These proclamations are from a worn-out false narrative which places LGBTQ people as the enemy of families. LGBTQ people are not the enemy of families. Families include us. And while Lee, Huckabee-Sanders, and whoever else make a point to exclude us, their attempts are having the opposite effect. They remind people - whether they support us or not - that we do exist. Our marriages exist. Our children exist. Our families exist. LGBTQ families and gay marriage are no longer on the outside of the American experience We have become normal part of the American experience.
Proclamations born out of sour grapes will never change that. Nor do they stop Pride events from taking place in their respective states.
While Perkins can gloat about us losing corporate sponsors, he can't gloat about the disappearance of Pride Month because it still exists. He can gloat about how the Trump Administration is creating havoc for our Pride celebrations, he can't gloat that we are canceling our celebrations because they are still taking place. He can gloat about the trouble our community is presently having, but he can't gloat that we have returned to the closet because we are going nowhere but forward. And while Perkins can gloat about immature proclamations designed (unsuccessfully) to render our families as nonexistent, he can't get rid of our families because we aren't going anywhere. This is our country too.
Perkins wants people to think he's gloating, but he is actually settling for crumbs cobbled together as a pathetic semblance of victory. He's cheering the small roadblocks to our Pride celebrations because he is powerless to stop them. He's cheering the sad insults levied against our families because he can't eliminate our visibility. It's the only power he has against us, and I bet it makes him bitter.
Eat your heart out, Tony. And Happy Pride. Your bitterness will always sustain us.
