Understanding who your customers are is smart business.
Many Starbucks outlets are toning down Pride Month celebrations, according to several reports, though the coffee chain’s top executives deny it’s official policy.
Ignoring your customers is costly. Disney’s first-ever film featuring a nonbinary character, “Elemental,” flopped last weekend. Moviegoers “iced” it, says the Hollywood Reporter, producing the lowest opening weekend revenue in the animator’s history. Ouch!
All this is happening during the most controversial Pride Month in years.
Why the controversy?
Pride is departing from its original, noble goal of combatting discrimination against gays and lesbians.
In some parts of the country, Pride has been hijacked by extremists who are attacking Catholics and others with traditional values.
Pride Month began in June 1969 as a civil-rights movement. Demonstrators took to the streets to protest a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village, Manhattan.
A year later, marchers in Chicago turned out to mark the anniversary of the raid, and over time Gay Pride became a national movement.
The goal was to stop the shaming against gay and lesbian people, and promote tolerance and mutual respect.
Those values are as American as apple pie, and everyone can celebrate them.
But aggressive activists and far-left politicians have been turning some Pride events into hateful attacks.
Friday night, the Los Angeles Dodgers held a Pride Night pre-game ceremony honoring the Sisters of Indulgence, a group of LGBTQIA+ activists, mostly men, who dress up in nuns’ habits.
They ridicule the Catholic faith, pole dancing on a cross and mocking “hunky Jesus” and “foxy Mary.”
Their motto is “Go and sin some more,” a take-off on Jesus’ command to “go and sin no more.”
The Dodgers have been holding Pride Night for a decade, but this year’s veered off. Outside the stadium, Catholics and others prayed in protest.
David Leatherwood, a board member of Gays against Groomers, says many gays and lesbians disapprove of the Sisters of Indulgence and see the aggressive promotion of transgenderism as a threat to what Pride has achieved.
The Los Angeles Times reports that in this year’s Pride events, transgender and nonbinary personalities are front and center, unlike in the past.
A miniscule 0.6% of Americans 13 and over are transgender, according to the Williams Institute.
On the other hand, 70% of Americans identify as religious, according to Pew Research, and most religions discourage flamboyant sexual conduct in public.
Mock religion and your bottom line will take a hit. Axios reports that Anheuser-Busch, Target and Kohl’s suffered a cumulative $28 billion loss in stock value since April 1.
Anheuser-Busch, maker of formerly top-selling Bud Light, engaged transgender social-media influencer Dylan Mulvaney to advertise its brand. Bud Light sales tumbled, and Modelo, a Mexican beer, catapulted to No. 1.
Kohl’s and Target featured LGBTQIA+ themed clothing in its kids’ departments. Customers — the silent majority — took their purchasing power elsewhere, and the companies’ stocks plummeted.
Politicians — especially elected school boards — take note.
At Saticoy Elementary School in Los Angeles, a mother of a 6-year-old objected that a Pride assembly was inappropriate for elementary school. She was fine with it for her middle-school child.
West High School in Manchester, NH, created a firestorm by holding a Pride event, using American Rescue Plan Act funding to pay for Pride decorations and drag performers.
“We should educate students in civic pride, not gay pride,” said Manchester resident Daniel Mowry, who identifies as a gay man.
In America, the majority rules — within limits.
James Madison, architect of the US Constitution, warned against the dangers of unrestrained majority rule. The Bill of Rights was added to protect minority rights.
Presidents from Bill Clinton to Donald Trump and Joe Biden have recognized Pride Month.
But for Pride to maintain the nation’s backing, the movement needs to return to its founding purpose and stop the attacks.
Don’t let the extremists ruin Pride.
Tell Pride leaders that the United States will always stand up for minorities.
But the silent majority, including people of faith, have rights, too.
Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York.
Twitter: @Betsy_McCaughey
