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Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Smantha.

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Speaker 2: I'm one theme stuff I've never told you production of

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Speaker 2: iHeartRadio and welcome it to another Monday, Mini and Happy

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Speaker 2: Pride Be Pride. Yes as this comes out as we

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Speaker 2: record it. It is Pride Month twenty twenty five. Today

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Speaker 2: is June twelfth, twenty twenty five. And I put this

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Speaker 2: in here because this is one where I feel like

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Speaker 2: some things are going to happen in the next few

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Speaker 2: weeks around this conversation, and we'll see how it plays out.

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Speaker 2: But I just wanted to talk about a conversation I

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Speaker 2: have seen playing out online that didn't really supprise me,

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Speaker 2: but I was still like, oh, yeah, that makes sense.

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Speaker 2: That makes sense that we're having this conversation. So basically,

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Speaker 2: as part of Trump's anti DEI initiatives and growing anti

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Speaker 2: LGBTQ plus sentiments, a lot of big companies are pulling

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Speaker 2: their support from Pride. According to a Slate article by

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Speaker 2: Christina Kaderucci called the End of the Rainbow Quote. This year,

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Speaker 2: the exodus ramped up. In one survey of forty nine

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Speaker 2: executives at Fortune one thousand companies, nearly forty percent said

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Speaker 2: their businesses planned to dial back their engagement with Pride

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Speaker 2: month this year, either internally or externally. Only nine percent

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Speaker 2: said the same last year. It is a huge slump

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Speaker 2: and funding and frankly pretty disheartening. Pride organizations are reporting

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Speaker 2: a massive loss of funding in some places, up to

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Speaker 2: seventy to ninety percent for some smaller organizations. And this

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Speaker 2: includes posting any kind of support for Pride themed events,

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Speaker 2: selling Pride themed products, sponsoring Pride themed events. It also

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Speaker 2: involves tariffs and companies trying to shore up their business

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Speaker 2: in any way that they can against them, right or wrong.

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Speaker 2: So being like, well there are tarriffs, so no Pride

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Speaker 2: this year, that sort of thing. I mean, it's not surprising.

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Speaker 2: We always say companies are not allies. They go wherever

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Speaker 2: the politics and money tell them to go, largely, so

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Speaker 2: it's not a surprise it does suck. But also Pride

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Speaker 2: parades were never meant to be these places where companies

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Speaker 2: kind of infiltrated, especially when they're not true allies. They've

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Speaker 2: clearly demonstrated several times. This is not news. So some

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Speaker 2: people are sort of glad at this. That was not

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Speaker 2: a pun I meant to make, but this sort of like, yeah,

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Speaker 2: get out, we didn't want you here in the first place,

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Speaker 2: especially if you're not supporting us as a community in

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Speaker 2: any real way other than just kind of showing up

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Speaker 2: and taking up space from actual queer people. And the

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Speaker 2: people who are in that kind of feeling think they

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Speaker 2: are hoping that the parades and events become more local

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Speaker 2: and more actually pride based instead of this big corporate event.

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Speaker 2: And this is a long standing debate in the queer community.

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Speaker 2: We've talked about it before. As early as the nineteen seventies,

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Speaker 2: activists were trying to reclaim pride from businesses. Others think

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Speaker 2: that there is potential to make queer sponsorships with mainstream

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Speaker 2: brands and just in general feel more accepted. So, you know,

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Speaker 2: seeing these big companies at these events, some people argue

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Speaker 2: is pretty big. These big companies are paying for this

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Speaker 2: generally big party after all, and some people feel like

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Speaker 2: it's nice having this kind of mainstream support, even if

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Speaker 2: it's flimsy, or even being able to get pride themed

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Speaker 2: products in mainstream stores because some people don't have ready

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Speaker 2: access to those things. Depending on where they are, it

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Speaker 2: can feel like progress. It really isn't, and obviously it

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Speaker 2: can change at any moment. But there are a lot

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Speaker 2: of different viewpoints about this. Also, a lot of these

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Speaker 2: companies Pride initiatives are led by straight pa people, and

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Speaker 2: a lot of the participants on the floats of these

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Speaker 2: companies in Pride parades are straight, which takes away from

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Speaker 2: actual queer people. I mean, I'm not saying I personally

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Speaker 2: don't think, you know, having true allyship is bad, but

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Speaker 2: if it's like all straight people, that is a little right.

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Speaker 2: Some companies are still supporting Pride, but apparently don't want

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Speaker 2: their logo shown, which is not I don't okay. I mean,

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Speaker 2: I hope that means it's honest support, but it also

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Speaker 2: sounds like you just don't want the backlash of being

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Speaker 2: actually someone who cares about this, our company that cares

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Speaker 2: about this. So that's a conversation that's happening. And we have,

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Speaker 2: as I said, discussed before how antithetical this is to

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Speaker 2: the core of what Pride was historically, and how there

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Speaker 2: has been pushed back against it, especially as we've gotten

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Speaker 2: more like you know, I don't know, police involvement in

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Speaker 2: the parade or even military involvement in the parade. Some

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Speaker 2: organizations are rejecting any funding from any companies that they

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Speaker 2: themselves reject DEI funding, So some are doing it that way.

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Speaker 2: But this is complicated for a lot of reasons because

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Speaker 2: it is nice to get rid of corporate influence. I

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Speaker 2: spoke about my when I went to a Pride parade

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Speaker 2: in October, and it was so many companies that I

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Speaker 2: was like, I know for a fact, you actually really

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Speaker 2: don't support the LGBTQ plus community, and not only that,

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Speaker 2: you actively campaign against us. So it would be nice

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Speaker 2: to see less of that and get back to the

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Speaker 2: heart of what it was and what it was meant

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Speaker 2: to be. But also LGBTQ plus businesses that rely on

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Speaker 2: these companies are sounding the alarm, as we discussed in

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Speaker 2: our episode with Bridget about the Target boycott. So it's complicated.

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Speaker 2: I'm glad we're having the conversation, and I don't come

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Speaker 2: here with any answer because ultimately, in my ideal world,

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Speaker 2: the companies would just be good companies and support causes.

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Speaker 2: But they don't do that, and I know that they won't.

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Speaker 2: And let like they would support the cause and put

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Speaker 2: their logo on, but not take up the parade space,

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Speaker 2: you know what I mean, Like do more than Hey,

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Speaker 2: we checked off this box, right, So we're good, right,

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Speaker 2: But that is interesting that that is happening right now

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Speaker 2: because of all this backlash and DEI stuff. So I

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Speaker 2: want to see what happens with Pride this year with

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Speaker 2: that I haven't seen. I personally haven't been to any

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Speaker 2: events yet, so I can't speak to it, but I'll

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Speaker 2: report back right.

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Speaker 1: Well, people were confused because Georgia, We've talked about this

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Speaker 1: in Atlanta, the fact that a lot of the times

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Speaker 1: the big Pride event happens in October. Yeah for Atlanta,

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Speaker 1: so people are like, what's happening And you already talked

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Speaker 1: about that with some of the backlash and the reasoning

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Speaker 1: behind that. But yeah, I've already seen like in Florida

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Speaker 1: where they're trying to ban it, that people are like,

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Speaker 1: now we're going to do things, watch us. So it's

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Speaker 1: been nice to see that. That feels comforting, sad, but comforting.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean that's another aspect that we're not gonna

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Speaker 2: talk about today, but that is Yeah, that's another thing,

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Speaker 2: is just banning it all right and people being like, Nope,

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Speaker 2: we're gonna do it anyway. So listeners, please write in

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Speaker 2: what's your thoughts about this or if you're participating in

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Speaker 2: any of these events, how they look like, how you

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Speaker 2: dealt with this, Please let us know. You can email

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Speaker 2: us at Hello at stuff Whenever Told You dot com.

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Speaker 2: You can also find us on Blue Sky, at momsa podcast,

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Speaker 2: or on Instagram and TikTok as stuff When Never Told You.

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Speaker 2: We're also on YouTube. We have a tea public store,

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Speaker 2: and we have a book you can get wherever you

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Speaker 2: get your books. Thanks as always to our super producer restenid,

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Speaker 2: our executive producer and contributor Joey, Thank you and thanks

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Speaker 2: to you for listening Stuff Never Told You disrection of

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