Last summer, I ended up in San Francisco during its world-famous annual Pride weekend. It was the last stop on that well-worn road trip along State Route 1 and, as we drove away from the coast and into the city, everything turned multicoloured. The rainbow flag hung outside state buildings and institutions. The entire city was given over to a celebration of difference and equality, solidarity and strength. I have been to Prides in the UK before, and will go to London Pride next weekend, but I had never seen one on this scale, and it was powerful and more uplifting than I could have imagined.
Such was the rainbow flag’s ubiquity, however, that shop windows were also draped in it, the merchandise either decorated with or made from this symbol of defiance. And this was where I started to feel queasy about the fixtures and fittings of Pride celebrations. Whenever I see a big brand adopting the rainbow as a sign of its social conscience, I instinctively think, that was never the point of that flag. When I see Skittles releasing a bag of plain white “lentils”, as they appear to be called, with the tagline “because only one Rainbow matters this Pride”, my first reaction is to think: “This is a marketing gimmick that ensures Skittles are in the news during Pride month.”
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