The Pinkwashing of both governments and corporations negatively affects the Global South in various ways.
Walmart, the largest private employer in the world, has taken part in Pride Month celebrations during June year after year. In fact, Walmart was on the Human Rights Campaign’s list of the most queer-friendly companies. Contrarily, many of Walmart’s actions do not align with Pride. Walmart continuously exploits workers in the Global South. The book Walmart in the Global South: Workplace Culture, Labor Politics, and Supply Chains outlines how Walmart has undermined labor laws and grassroots resistance in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The LGBTQ+ community is especially concerned with the corporate hijacking of Pride marches because most of these corporations have donated to anti-LGBT politicians. Additionally, Pride marches are not a location for corporate advertising because they originate from the Stonewall riots, which were held to fight police violence and state interference in queer spaces.
When it comes to countries, Pinkwashing is often committed by governments in the Global North in various ways. In Japan and Poland, homosexuality is legal. Japan housed many openly LGBT athletes for the Olympics in 2021 and the mayor of Poland’s capital signed a declaration to protect LGBT rights in 2019. However, Japan does not recognize gay marriage and does not possess legislation that would protect against discrimination. Gay marriage is illegal in Poland and LGBT rights activists in Warsaw were arrested for “offending religious beliefs” in 2021.
Brand Israel, a campaign that was launched in 2005, was Israel’s grand attempt at appearing more modern and progressive, rather than a religious and militaristic country. Sarah Schulman’s “Brand Israel and Pinkwashing: A Documentary Guide” is a detailed chronology of Brand Israel until 2012 that is included at the end of her book. Israel is considered one of the most evident examples of Pinkwashing. Schulman popularized the use of the word Pinkwashing in reference to Israel’s actions in 2011 when she published her op-ed in The New York Times, “Israel and ‘Pinkwashing.’” The following list contains the many reasons that Israel’s Pinkwashing is harmful. It allows them to:
- Use the Israeli LGBTQ+ community’s efforts to appear more progressive
- Use these efforts to achieve more profits through the advertisement of sex tourism
- Distract from their continuous violations of the human rights of Palestinians
- Justify these human rights violations by falsely portraying the Middle East and Islam as backward, barbaric, and homophobic
- Ignore the existence of Palestinian queers and gay rights organizations
- Contribute to the negative effects of homonationalism
- Divide, oppress, and erase Palestinians on the basis of gender and sexuality
In a call to boycott the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association’s conference in Tel Aviv to promote Israel as a “world gay destination,” the reason to oppose Israel’s tactics are concisely summarized;
“The intersection of physical and societal separations and barriers have justly earned the term apartheid, referring to an historically parallel racist regime in South Africa against the indigenous Black population of that country. Leisure tourism to apartheid Israel supports this regime. It is not neutral, and it certainly is not a step toward real peace, which can only be based on justice.”
– QuAIA, QUIT, IJAN, QBDS