A community, a movement, and the games of profit.
Exploit
to make use of meanly or unfairly for one’s own advantage
e.g. exploiting migrant farm workers
Source
Who is trying to exploit the LGBT community?
34 of you replied:
Some of your opinions
Is the exploitation of the LGBTQ+ community a thing? Are there perpetrators that try to take advantage of us to increase their profits and fame? How should we respond?
It currently works both ways. Both straight and gay people exploit the pink pound so why should we judge straight people for it? — Dbyrne79@mr.com
Exploitation….can you define it? Is advertisement and product placement exploitation? Does Guinness exploit the Irish? Does Supermac’s exploit? Galway sports teams? Google places its money and brand into events like pride and gets the value of Association with something perceived as.modern and liberal. — — Pól Mag Lionáin
We should encourage companies to spend. Big sporting events like Rugby “Heineken cup” are supported by corporations via money. It’s only exploitation if they are damaging the community and giving nothing. This doesn’t happen if the community is receiving funding from the companies — Shay
Not in corporations. I’ve worked in many big corporations where they genuinely support LGBTQ+ with proposals that come from internals. There is not such exploitation of LGBTQ+ but there are politicians that conveniently support LGBTQ before elections (only on TV not in legislation). In terms of artists, we are a target audience for many artists. We must look at them as a product that is trying to be sold to us as a community. — Andres R.
I don’t fully agree with that. I think the LGBTQ+ community has been recognized as a good target for votes and money but I would not talk of exploitation because that gives more visibility to the community and helps to raise awareness. I know that the reasons are greedy and opportunistic but the outcome tends to be positive, current and informed. — Giuseppe
Totally. I think it’s difficult to know people’s true motivations around doing good for the LGBT community. One way we could respond is by demanding that instead of spending €€€ on parade representation and pride ads, big companies could use that to donate to LGBT causes — N/a
Yes, it is. Yes, there are. We should always spread the word to other friends and family and just pick another place/artist/etc to go/follow. If we think we are being exploited we just should stop going to that place, or following that artist and when they feel the pain In their “pocket” they would have a wake up call. — Annonymous
It’s an easy guess; they try to exploit us.
You must have seen politicians like Donald Trump or Gemma O’Doherty trying to sway pink votes. Turning Gay or LGBT friendly just a month before the elections.
And so what?
Have they managed to drum up support from many of us? They probably did — and for all the wrong reasons. But I am not mad at them.
Knowing that politicians are actually trying to impress us shows that we finally have a voice. And it is indeed heard.
Are we looking a gift horse in the mouth?
Yes, Angela Merkel and Hillary Clinton did make a turn towards our community to gain votes. And yes, they most probably weren’t the LGBT champions they pretended they were. But as long as they keep their promises and follow their plan, I think, we owe it to ourselves to be supportive.
While we shouldn’t join forces with the devil to achieve our goals, fighting away new allies is not the right move.
Many of us turned from “very bigoted” to “slightly bigoted” to a “true ally”. In the same fashion, many famous people, groups or corporations are transitioning into a more inclusive era. We should not fight them away. As a community, we need to show them the way instead.
Don’t judge intentions. Criticise actions.
Many artists and corporations have received a lot of hatred online for flirting with the LGBT community. Rita Ora “wasn’t queer enough and needed alcohol to kiss girls”, Ariana Grande “is straight so she shouldn’t headline Pride”, “New Snapchat filters make fun of transgender people and transitioning”, “Sam Smith is not non-binary” etc.
Aren’t we sick of telling people what they are and what they are not? Isn’t it what we’ve all been fighting against our whole lives? What are we trying to achieve when we guess other people’s intentions, sexuality or gender? Do we really want the labels to define us?
We all know about tabloids and fame monsters. In many of the above situations, anyone might think that they are “bullshitting”. What will we win though if we call it out? Nothing. And we risk our community and our solidarity.
Calling out people based on what we believe their intentions are and not on their actions is wrong.
Such actions scare the most vulnerable of us that think they are not bisexual or queer enough. We scare the ones that believe that they don’t fit in one of our terms. Individuals that are struggling thinking they are probably “not lesbians enough” to come out and face the judgment that Rita Ora received when she made a fun, slightly stupid or even distasteful song.
