With pride month on the horizon, it gives allies and members of the LGBTQ+ community alike a summer month dedicated to the celebration of their identities to look forward to. In addition to parades, festivals, and other celebratory events, June also brings pride collections to retail stores and rainbow-colored logos to popular social media accounts. 

While it is incredible to see companies recognizing the LGBTQ+ community and showing their support in subtle ways, this support is oftentimes illegitimate. Unfortunately, many companies only paint their walls with many colors for commercial and monetary gain.

Using a celebration of human rights as a way to suck in customers for one month only and completely ignoring the significance of the event is bad enough, but certain companies are downright putting up a facade and lying about their support. 

AT&T, for example, may have appeared to be a supportive ally of the LGBTQ+ community when it was sporting a rainbow background with its logo superimposed upon it as its Twitter profile picture. Their banner was a proponent for equality as well, putting the minds of those concerned about their actions at ease with the colorful graphics. Despite these seemingly sweet images, AT&T is only putting up a display of its hypocrisy.

The company has repeatedly backed anti-LGBTQ+ lawmakers, even through the passage of Florida’s discriminatory “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Obviously, AT&T would never admit such a thing themselves, so they attempt to outshine the darkness with an entire page on their website flaunting the fact that they accept LGBTQ+ people. This should be a given and not something to brag about; human rights are not, and never should be, up for debate.

Initially, I was thrown off-track when looking into the AT&T LGBTQ+ support timeline on the company’s website. The name “The Trevor Project” caught my eye. This non-profit organization—which helps LGBTQ+ youth with mental health and safety—was working with AT&T. Upon closer inspection, however, the number of stories and publicity the company seemed to be begging for was far out of proportion for the $1,000,000 donated over several years. Although this seems like a significant amount of money for a company with a $193,000,000,000 net worth.

It could seem as if AT&T had a change of heart and was trying to correct its prior mistakes with the donations to the Trevor Project, but they are still backing anti-LGBTQ+ politicians who are still passing anti-LGBTQ+ bills. 

AT&T is not alone in its contradictory behaviors. Walmart, which is already notorious for its poor wages for its workers, has also advocated for pride—pride products, that is. Walmart has donated a considerable amount to such politicians and candidates as well, making their support for LGBTQ+ solely nominal.

CVS was also found to be backing lawmakers who support making youth gender-affirming healthcare a criminal offense. This was the same company that scored 100% on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index and the same company that signed the the HRC business statement against anti-LGBTQ state legislation.

It has frequently been a running joke both within and outside of the LGBTQ+ community that after June, companies abandon their celebration of pride. Even though it is easy to laugh it off, rainbow-washing companies are truly harmful and just a ploy to rake in more money.