Pride began as a protest. The first march in San Francisco was explicitly political—a direct response to police violence and state persecution. Fifty years later, it had parade floats sponsored by banks, tech companies, and beer brands. Corporate adoption felt like victory, proof that queer identity had gone mainstream. In recent years, the climate has shifted: Queer communities have come under renewed attack across the country, and many companies have retreated from their embrace of the rainbow.
The next installment of Speaking Of, a quarterly panel series co-presented by the GLBT Historical Society and Unspeakable Vice, takes on the question activists have been raising since the 1970s: What does it mean when your liberation becomes a marketing strategy?
Moderator Shawn Sprockett (Adjunct Professor at California College of Arts and founder of Unspeakable Vice), along with speakers Suzanne Ford (Executive Director of SF Pride), Elizabeth Hudy (Founder of The Peach Fuzz), Laura Thomas (Senior Director of HIV & Harm Reduction Policy for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation & Society Board Member), and others to be announced, will be among those who gather for this in-conversation event at the GLBT Historical Society Museum.
The panel will trace the tension between assimilation and resistance that has defined queer politics from the beginning, and, as we approach June, ask whether the corporate retreat is a crisis, or an opportunity to bring Pride back closer to its founding mission.
The event will take place on Thursday, May 21, at 6:30 pm. Tickets are on sale. Visit the GLBT Historical Society website (https://bit.ly/4tSVchK) or follow the QR code to learn more.
Published on May 7, 2026
Recent Comments