Pride’s media partners are not required to agree to the transgender pledge, because “they’re expected to be neutral,” Taylor said. Non-profit organizations that accept federal or B.C. government funding also don’t have to adhere to the pledge, because they shouldn’t have to jeopardize their taxpayer dollars to support Pride.

Asked if the Pride Festivals’ major corporate sponsors — such as the TD Bank, Stolichnaya Vodka, Urban Fare, Pet Smart and Nordstrom — have been approached to sign the transgender pledge, Taylor said they had. However, she did not have information on which companies had formally agreed or not.

Other than Victoria’s Pride Society, Taylor was not aware of any other Pride group in Canada or the U.S. that was making participants agree to support transgender rights legislation.

Vancouver Pride Society president Ray Lam made no apology for thrusting a political edge back into North America’s LGBTQ festivals, which some have criticized for become too mainstream and corporate.

“It’s completely false to say the Pride Festival is just one big party. Pride is political, because it started out as queers fighting for their rights. LGBTQ people aren’t equal yet. And the mainstream doesn’t know that trans people are definitely not equal.”

dtodd@vancouversun.com

Twitter:@douglastodd

Has Pride been lost — to commercialism?

Have LGBTQ festivals become so mainstream, popular and business-friendly that they’ve lost their original vision?

That’s what some longtime activists charge as banks, liquor companies and even arms manufacturers now sponsor Pride events in the Britain and the U.S. — and Facebook has persuaded more than 26 million people to place a rainbow across their portraits.

At one time it was risky business to openly support LGBTQ causes. I remember the cultural battle in 2003, when Vancity Credit Union backed Vancouver’s Pride festival and the Roman Catholic archdiocese required parishes to pull their accounts.

But times have changed. This year the U.S. Supreme Court OK’d homosexual marriage. The new pope, Francis, says, “Who am I to judge?” And Pride is embraced across almost all of North America.

In this welcoming context, companies eager to reach LGBTQ audiences are paying tens of thousands of dollars to Pride Festivals, which have in turn wooed advertisers with polling data suggesting “queers” spend more than heterosexuals on consumer goods.

Some in the LGBTQ movement, however, are calling for a return to more radical days, when one camp of activists focused almost exclusively on sexual orientation, gender rights and freedom.

A militant British campaigner recently urged Pride festivals to go back to the “larger political project (which is) to destroy the patriarchal family as the incubation of oppressive gender roles.”

Other activists want the movement to re-emphasize progressive politics. Now that Western societies have largely accepted a range of sexual orientations, they’re also promoting justice on non-sex-related fronts — for all people of the globe.

It’s incontrovertible the Vancouver Pride Festival, which began more than three decades ago and holds its annual parade on Sunday, has become a corporation-friendly powerhouse.

Tourism Vancouver claims the Pride Festival brings $22.7 million to the city. Vancouver Pride claims its festival is the biggest in town, supported by 59 corporate sponsors.

Vancouver Pride’s “partnership” division charges “gold” sponsors $28,000 to market their products throughout the festival while “silver” sponsors pay $18,000 and “bronze” $12,000.

This year, Vancouver Pride’s largest sponsor is again the TD Bank, followed by corporations such as Stolichnaya Vodka, Palm Bay Sparkling Vodka, Trojan Condoms, Urban Fare, Bud Light, Nordstrom, PetSmart, BMW and HomeSense.

Pride’s partnership division has pulled together marketing data that aims to convince corporations the region’s LGBTQ audience is both financially successful and keen on consumption.

“Single queer travellers spend significantly more than their heterosexual counterparts, with gay men spending 48 per cent and lesbians spending 36 per cent more,” says Vancouver Pride’s partnership booklet.

“The LGBTQ market continues to have more disposable income and is more likely to switch to your brand, especially when it’s supportive of the queer community.”

Vancouver Pride’s marketers sometimes even try to gain traction with corporations by taking subtle shots at the straight population, claiming: “Heterosexual shoppers are 55 per cent more likely to switch brands to save money than queer shoppers.”

UBC business professor David Hardisty says corporations are flocking to associate their brands with Pride because they see it as “win-win.” The businesses not only believe “it’s the right thing to do,” Hardisty said, they also expect a “bump in profits.”

Pride Festival President Ray Lam acknowledged it’s not uncommon for people to worry the Pride parade, which draws more than 100,000 people, has become commercialized.

“It seems more corporate, but it’s mostly a perception thing,” Lam said, explaining that only one-third of parade participants are corporations, but their floats tend to be grander than anything entered by community groups.

Lam thinks strong corporate and public support is a sign of how far Pride has come. He’s not concerned by a study by UBC’s Kirk Kristofferson that suggests “slacktivism” — such as putting a rainbow over your Facebook portrait — can make people less inclined to actively support a cause.

“Symbolic gestures are very important. Any support is valuable,” Lam said.

This year, Vancouver Pride vice-president Chrissy Taylor noted the organization has been showing its political edge by requiring all participants to pledge support to transgender legislation. The move pushed B.C.’s Liberal Party out of Sunday’s parade.

Vancouver city Councillor Tim Stevenson, who has been fighting for homosexual rights since attending UBC in the 1970s, says it was inevitable business interests would jump on the LGBTQ bandwagon. He’s OK with that.

“There will be some who take advantage,” Stevenson said. “But (LGBTQ pioneers) made it safe for people. I’m very happy we’ve made it easier for others to come out.”

However, Stevenson acknowledged disappointment that part of the LGBTQ population has bought into shallow consumerism — and mostly “wants to be rich, to be free and to party.”

He was appalled when he attended a Victoria Pride Festival event and found one sponsor was a “money lender,” a company that charges high fees for instantly cashing cheques.

“I felt like Jesus in the temple, wanting to throw out the money lenders,” said Stevenson, a United Church of Canada clergyman who in 1992 became the first openly gay man ordained by a major Canadian Christian church.

However, Stevenson is not aghast that banks, liquor companies and supermarkets are now sponsoring the Vancouver Pride Festival.

“What are you going to do? We live in a capitalist society. They weren’t interested in us 30 years ago when we were untouchable. But now they’re there. I rejoice in light of how we’ve done so well.”

Like Lam, however, Stevenson believes it’s crucial for Pride organizations to more directly support persecuted LGBTQ people in repressive parts of the world, like Russia, Uganda, Malaysia, Turkey, India, China and dozens of other countries.

In addition, he wants to see now-comfortable members of the LGBTQ population fight for the liberation of all people, whether they’re oppressed by ethnicity, military conflict or economic class.

“I think God is trying to call out to all those people who are marginalized for whatever reason,” said Stevenson, putting on his reverend’s hat.

“I’d like to see people rise up, rise up, not just about sexual orientation, but about everything.”

dtodd@vancouversun.com

Twitter:@douglastodd