8 - Pride Month and Pink Economy

This week on Let’s be perfectly queer podcast we examine why June has become widely recognised as Pride Month, a time when the LGBTQ+ community and its allies come together to celebrate diversity, promote inclusivity, and commemorate the ongoing struggle for equal rights.

We also explore the concept of the Pink Economy and its influence on advertising and retail companies. 



   

Below is a list of organisations that provide further information and support  information sourced from Health direct.

QLife — counselling and referral service for LGBTIQ+ individuals: call 1800 184 527 (3pm to midnight

daily) or chat online.

Lifeline — support for anyone having a personal crisis: call 13 11 14, 24/7, text, or chat online.

Suicide Call Back Service — for anyone thinking about suicide: call 1300 659 467.

Beyond Blue — for anyone feeling depressed or anxious: call 1300 22 4636, email or chat online, 24/7.

Headspace — mental health space for ages 12-25 years.

Kids Helpline — mental health support for young people aged 5-25 years. Call 1800 55 1800 anytime.

ACON — LGBTIQ+ health and HIV prevention and support.

TransHub — ACON’s digital trans and gender diverse platform.

Head to Health — a guide to digital mental health services from some of Australia’s most trusted mental

health organisations, including a list of phone support services.

PFLAG — Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

ReachOut — mental health resources for young people.



Links we found extremely useful when researching for this topic:

https://www.britannica.com/story/why-is-pride-month-celebrated-in-june

https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/pride-month/

https://www.loc.gov/lgbt-pride-month/about/

https://nationaltoday.com/pride-month/

https://www.history.com/topics/gay-rights/pride-month

https://people.com/human-interest/pride-month-explained-pride-month-facts/

https://www.smartcapitalmind.com/what-is-pink-money.htm

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/07/pride-month-boycotts-target-bud-light-brands-companies

https://au.sports.yahoo.com/pink-economy-pink-money-meet-134500767

Transcript

Podcast: Let's Be Perfectly Queer

Episode Title: Pride Month And Pink Economy

Host(s):  Archie & Katie

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Speaker A () | 00:00:00 to 00:00:00
You.

Speaker B () | 00:00:04 to 00:00:13
All right, we're on. Welcome to let's Be Perfectly Queer, a. Queer podcast creating space to talk about all things queer. My name is Archie. And I'm Katie.

Speaker A () | 00:00:13 to 00:00:30
And we are your host. Questions of how you identify whether you're. Queen or somewhere in between. Let's be perfect queer this episode. We're talking about Pride Month, and if there's time, we're going to talk about pink economy.

Speaker A () | 00:00:30 to 00:00:43
If not, we're going to make that into a second episode or a small talk. All right, so first, before we start, we want to say a massive thank you to Apple podcast. Oh, we do. We absolutely do. We've had such great news, and it's been a great month for us, hasn't it?

Speaker A () | 00:00:43 to 00:01:03
It has been a really good month. So we just want to say thank you to Apple podcast and the editorial team for including us in the Queer Australia editorial curated playlist, and also including us in the category of Pride 2023. Yeah, it's been illuminating issues. That was, I believe, was one of them. I think it was something like Voices for Change or something like that.

Speaker B () | 00:01:03 to 00:01:20
Exactly. So both things highlighting change within the Pride community, which I think is right up our alley and what we're aiming. For, it's exactly what we've been trying to do. So it's very cool that some Apple podcast people noticed us and noticed what we try to do. And it's been good as well, because we've had some feedback from people who have found us through that.

Speaker A () | 00:01:20 to 00:01:36
Yeah, like yesterday. And it was amazing. It was really beautiful just hearing that we had helped somebody open their eyes or open their accessibility to the Pride community a bit more. It was really awesome. It means that what we wanted to do and how we wanted to go about this podcast is working.

Speaker A () | 00:01:36 to 00:01:50
Also want to quickly do a shout out to the following four users who have given us five star reviews on Apple podcasts. So folkier tropica loco loco, I think. Oh, I can't read my handwriting. Shelley Ann and Squeeto. One, one, two.

Speaker B () | 00:01:50 to 00:02:00
Thank you so much. And also thank you for everyone who participated in our giveaway recently. That was really awesome. If you actually have a look at our Instagram, you'll see what we're wearing. So we've got a little bit of merch.

Speaker B () | 00:02:00 to 00:02:13
I'm trying to face the camera. I'm not a camera person. Yeah, we've got some beautiful merch that we've been able to give away to people, and it's been really nice. And thank you for everybody for sharing, liking, reviewing and entering. And it's been really great.

Speaker A () | 00:02:13 to 00:02:18
So what's been happening? What else has been happening? We had COVID. We did for the second time. Absolutely.

Speaker B () | 00:02:18 to 00:02:26
We had COVID for the second time. It killed me a lot worse this time. Last time it hit me a lot worse. This time it hit you a lot worse. So we're soldiering on.

Speaker B () | 00:02:26 to 00:02:43
We're getting the podcast out because we're determined to keep up the cause. Yeah. So if we sound a little bit different, it's probably because we're still recovering a little bit. Anyway, back to what's been happening. So some news act passes laws protecting intersex people from surgeries without consent.

Speaker A () | 00:02:43 to 00:02:59
Sometimes they have irreversible surgeries when they're. Babies, like we talked about in our gender identity episode. So the act have passed a law that basically you can't perform a surgery on an intersex person without their consent unless it's medically necessary. I was just going to say, does that apply to the babies? Yes.

Speaker B () | 00:03:00 to 00:03:09
Wow, that's awesome. Go act. Yeah, which I thought was really cool. Was there any information about that law being passed in other places in Australia or? Not yet.

Speaker A () | 00:03:09 to 00:03:19
Not that I looked at. I was just looking at headlines. Let's be completely honest, I skimmed it. Breaking news, then. Biden marks pride month with his LGBTQ plus celebration at the White House.

Speaker A () | 00:03:19 to 00:03:34
And that was on Saturday, 10 June. Do you know, I saw some people that I follow on Instagram going to that. That's really cool. There's a pride party at the White House. Biden said, so today I want to send a message to the entire community, especially to transgender children.

Speaker A () | 00:03:34 to 00:04:13
You are loved, you are heard, you're understood and you belong. Which is quite a stark difference to all the other news, especially on TikTok, about all of the bills that are getting passed or they're going through. According to the Human Rights Campaign, which is a group of advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer rights, lawmakers have introduced 500 well, at least 525 bills and an enacted 78 bills that target LGBTQ plus rights. So it's quite a hard pill to swallow in one sense, because you have the president who's doing this amazing stuff, saying, we're doing this for the queer community. You're beloved, you belong, and then also having all these bills that are being introduced.

Speaker B () | 00:04:13 to 00:04:40
Yeah, I do agree with you, because I went through a little bit of an emotional roller coaster looking at all of this kind of stuff. And originally when hearing about all the bills that were trying to get passed that were anti queer, that were anti trans or completely homophobic, and I had this sense of rage in me initially and being like, well, what's Joe Biden doing? Like, I understand his demographic, but it made me really angry. How is this happening? How is this happening in a first world country?

Speaker B () | 00:04:40 to 00:05:13
I don't understand where it comes to human rights. And they're such big advocates for making sure that you have the right to speech and you've got all these different human rights, but these things are happening. And then I saw on the flip side, that even as president, even though it may feel like they have so much power with what we saw with Donald Trump, there are still a lot of things that if you go by the rules, it's very difficult to go against. So many laws and bills that are coming at you. It's almost like he's had this huge flood overwhelm him.

Speaker B () | 00:05:14 to 00:05:35
And as a president, you can only say no legally to so many, from what I understand. So he has sued some states, but I'm not unsure exactly. I think Tennessee might have been one, but that's me just guessing off the top of my head. So don't quote me on that, but I know he has. But if you look at the system and the way it works, is there's quite a lot of these conservative states and these are the states that are passing these kind of laws.

Speaker B () | 00:05:35 to 00:05:51
Yeah, it's true. And until there is that flip in understanding and flip in government, I guess in those smaller area or not small areas, it's the very rural communities. They're very like southern states and all that kind of stuff. But really he's trying. He actually really is trying.

Speaker A () | 00:05:51 to 00:06:31
And having this conversation with friends, with coworkers about why do I focus on the news that's happening in the United States, is because no matter what happens there, things often start to creep in in Australia. And so it's something that we as queer people need to be very wary about. And I've noticed in the last few months, the influx of homophobic comments that are happening on Perth events is rising at a rapid rate. And even just the other day, someone was putting up like a mental health well being event for just youth, and it had a rainbow and it was being attacked by people from Perth with just very anti trans. Why are you doing this towards our kids?

Speaker A () | 00:06:31 to 00:06:44
It's a mental health event. It's for the kids to make the kids have better mental health. Yeah, it's like the LGBT are attacking our youth here in Perth as well. Read the event. You have to kind of keep an eye on it because then it can start to creep in.

Speaker B () | 00:06:44 to 00:06:57
As you see with these kind of trolls is they don't actually read the room. They're not the ones that are actually going in and trying to figure out what these events are about. They're never those kind of people. No, they read the spark notes. Yeah, they don't even read the spark notes.

Speaker B () | 00:06:57 to 00:07:06
They see queer and they're like Satan. Yes. It's not the same kind of vibe. They're not rational human beings. They're not here to have a conversation about something and to actually learn.

Speaker B () | 00:07:07 to 00:07:23
It's not for them. There was those protesting against drag in the city not that long ago. It was like two weeks ago. And then we've had those anti drag and anti story time happen here, those kind of protests. It happened in the city at the Perth Library, it happened at Subiaco.

Speaker A () | 00:07:23 to 00:07:40
It also happened even up in Midland. So one of my coworkers was talking about the fact he went to a little meeting and he got into a heated debate because of the fact that different people's views and how they see storytime. And he was like, it's art, it's expression. It's not attacking and trying to brainwash and manipulate the kids. It's not what it is at all.

Speaker B () | 00:07:40 to 00:07:49
No. That's not what drag has ever been. Drag has always been entertainment. It's always been something fun. It's never been something that hurts people.

Speaker A () | 00:07:49 to 00:08:00
No. And if you're looking at Shakespeare time, the men play the women. I'll get into this another episode. Before we do get into the full on episode, we do have a story from one of our listeners, brad. Oh, Brad.

Speaker A () | 00:08:00 to 00:08:06
Brad. Shreve. So one of our listeners. So if you are listening and you'd like to come share your story too, please do. So.

Speaker A () | 00:08:06 to 00:08:24
This is Brad's story. Hi, Archie and Katie. I just listened to your episode about reclaiming queer and thought I'd share a story you may find interesting. It's a hotter issue than I imagine, at least on this side of the pond. I started my first podcast in 2019 and titled it Gay Mystery Podcast and interviewed LGBTQ authors of mystery, suspense and thriller novels.

Speaker A () | 00:08:24 to 00:08:45
After a little over a year, I started rethinking it and asked lesbian and transgender guests how they felt. They all said they appreciated being on the show, but it did feel strange having gay in the title. So I changed it to Queer Writers of Crime. I expected some backlash and got more than I had thought, all from older gay men. It went from Shame on you, you should know better, to you're disgusting.

Speaker A () | 00:08:45 to 00:09:02
One scheduled guest canceled over it. However, I'd say for every negative response, I got at least five thanking me. I did explain I considered myself a gay man who was part of the queer community and that helped calm a couple down, but not most. When I launched my new show last November, I didn't hesitate to use queer. I haven't had any pushback, but I'm sure it helps.

Speaker A () | 00:09:02 to 00:09:08
I didn't have a fan base used to it the old way. Great show. Keep it up. Thanks, Brad. Thanks for your feedback and thanks for sharing it.

Speaker A () | 00:09:08 to 00:09:46
And Brad comes from a different culture and a different time to us with queer and gay, and we've spoke about this on previous episodes. Also, it's different in the UK than it is to Australia because I feel like in the UK they've had a longer history with well, a longer gay history, in essence, with protests and such things. Whereas Australia, even though, I mean, all of us are immigrants, apart for our indigenous individuals, that it's a lot newer and there's a lot less association. And most of our association comes back from the UK anyway, so I can see why there probably was more people and obviously in the UK there's a bigger queer scene than in Australia. Undeniably, though, it's dropping.

Speaker A () | 00:09:46 to 00:09:58
It's actually dropping in its ratings very quickly from being one of the safest places in the world for queer people and it's dropping really quick. She was like, what? The queer people are dropping? No. I was very confused for a second.

Speaker B () | 00:09:58 to 00:10:09
I'm like to our queer people? No. So I read it somewhere that it went from being like 7th in the world to down to like 60th of a country that was pro LGBT rights. Thank you so much. Bradfreave.

Speaker A () | 00:10:09 to 00:10:29
He is the host of Queer We Are podcast and if you are interested in sharing your own stories, please don't forget you can send us a DM via Instagram, which is what Brad did. He also sent us an email as well and get in contact with us if you'd like to share your story. So, what's our episode on today? We are talking Pride Month and we are talking about what is Pride Month? A little bit about the history and how it came to be.

Speaker A () | 00:10:30 to 00:11:03
Because I would say I didn't actually know that Pride Month was a thing. I thought it was celebrated in certain countries and I think it was really recently that Australia have jumped on board with celebrating Pride Month. I agree with you, but then I also don't know a huge amount. I've always thought of Pride Month being around Mardi Gras and being around Fair Day for us in Perth and it's not really been associated with many other things. I probably have only known about Pride Month since there's been big marketing in brands and you see all these Pride things coming out in June.

Speaker B () | 00:11:03 to 00:11:14
That's the only reason I've really known about it. And that's where the pink money will come in. Anyway. So what is Pride Month? It's a month dedicated to celebrating and commemorating LGBTQIA plus Pride.

Speaker A () | 00:11:14 to 00:11:26
It celebrates and honors LGBTQIA plus culture and rights. So why is Pride Month celebrated in June? Sometimes also known as Gate Pride. Why do you think it is? Do you have any idea?

Speaker B () | 00:11:26 to 00:11:38
I feel like there's some kind of protest that it's associated with. Yes. Any idea what protester was? As far as it goes? So it all began and as soon as I say it, you're going to be like, oh, I knew that.

Speaker A () | 00:11:38 to 00:11:44
The Stonewall riot. Yeah. Do you know what, that was going to be my first guess, yes. So have you heard of the Stonewall Riots? Yes.

Speaker A () | 00:11:44 to 00:11:54
And do you know anything about the Stonewall Riots? I have got them in my notes to read for next week. That's good because I'm going to talk about it right now, so you might not have as much to talk about. No, I will. Don't worry.

Speaker A () | 00:11:54 to 00:12:08
So it all began with the Stonewall Riots. In the 1950s and 60s, American society viewed being gay as a taboo and a mental disorder. People opposed this and stood up against this. And that's some of the reason for the Stonewall Riots. So it was civil rights activism?

Speaker B () | 00:12:09 to 00:12:31
Yeah. Okay, great at history, guys. The riots began in New York City's, Greenwich Village, at Stonewall Inn. So on June 28, 1969, police raided the spot popular amongst the LGBTQIA plus community. As was common in many cities, the New York Police Department would occasionally raid bars and restaurants where gays and lesbians were known together.

Speaker A () | 00:12:31 to 00:13:00
Witnesses to the event watched police aggressively drag patrons and employees out of the bar. Several people fought back and a crowd of angry locals gathered in the streets. The confrontation escalated and sparked six days of protests and violent clashes with the NYPD outside the Stonewall Inn. The Stonewall Riots, also known as the Stonewall Uprising, sparked the LGBTQIA plus rights movements in the US and made front page news worldwide. There were other events in June that happened before and after Stonewall.

Speaker A () | 00:13:00 to 00:13:21
Multiple holidays arose out of the LGBTQIA plus movement, and Pride Month has become one of the biggest celebrations all over the United States. Yeah, the Stonewall Riots are one of the most well known riots when it comes to the queer community. There's a lot of other ones that come into it, but Stonewall happens to be like, one of the largest ones. Yeah. And so if you've heard that saying the first parade was a riot, that's where it comes from.

Speaker A () | 00:13:21 to 00:13:42
It comes from the Stonewall Riots. So here's a bit of the timeline leading up to Pride Month. So, in 1924, the first gay riots group is established in Chicago, and then in 1969 was the Stonewall Riots or the Stonewall Uprising. 1970 was the first Pride Parade, which was the Gay Liberation March in New York, which was one year after the Stonewall to commemorate it. In 1978.

Speaker A () | 00:13:42 to 00:14:14
Gilbert Baker's original design of the Rainbow flag is flown at San Francisco Gay Freedom Day parade in 1994. LGBT History Month is recognized in October. In 1999, Bill Clinton recognizes gay and lesbian Pride Month for the first time, and the federal government officially recognizes June as LGBT Pride Month. So, to summarize, Pride Month is celebrated in June to honor Stonewall Riots and both commemorate and celebrate LGBTQ plus activism and culture through the years. Many cities celebrate Pride in June, while elsewhere, it is celebrated at different times.

Speaker A () | 00:14:14 to 00:14:30
Australia does celebrate Pride Month, but we have our own Pride days. So ours in Perth is in November. It's called pride fest. And we have, like, Fair Day and the Pride Parade and all the celebration. And this year's theme is called Be Brave, which I think is very fitting with everything that's going around in the world.

Speaker B () | 00:14:30 to 00:14:39
Yes, definitely. Yeah. In Sydney, they've got the Mardi Gras, which usually runs from February to March, and then other places as well. In WA, we've got Albany, which they do one in March. Broome.

Speaker A () | 00:14:39 to 00:14:54
They have theirs in February in March and Goldfields have one in October. November? And not to forget World Pride, that's in March as well, which is very different to Pride Month. So why is Pride Month important to celebrate? Why do you think it's important to celebrate Pride Month?

Speaker B () | 00:14:54 to 00:15:41
It's important to celebrate because it shows that we're proud of where we've come from. And what we've come from is a lot of really strong people who have fought for our freedom to be who we are and to love who we love. It's important that we continue this, because in a world where our rights are still constantly being questioned and debated and debated, we need to continue this train forward and continue fighting to have the freedoms that we have at the moment as well as the freedoms that we should be having. From one of the many websites that are looked up because they can sometimes put things a little bit more eloquently than I can put together. It's to publicly include all members of our families and communities who in the past have had to hide who they were to also commemorate the efforts of those who fought for LGBTQIA Plus rights.

Speaker A () | 00:15:41 to 00:16:22
So when I think of Pride Month, I personally think it's a time to celebrate how far we've come, to thank all our LGBTQIA Plus ancestors who have fought to give us the world that we are in today. And it's also to celebrate how far we've come, but also know how far we still have to go and to show others out there, we're here, we're queer, we're not going anywhere to highlight. Our issues as well as to celebrate each other. So how can you celebrate Pride Month? So you can do an LGBTQIA Plus related art project, you can fly a Pride flag, you can volunteer your time or donate to an LGBTQIA Plus cause, you can go to LGBTQIA Plus organized events, and you can educate yourself about LGBTQIA Plus history.

Speaker A () | 00:16:23 to 00:16:50
We were just talking today how we're a bit disappointed that we are having Pride, but we don't have a lot of stuff going on here. No, but like we've highlighted, it's not really an Australian thing yet. It's starting to get adopted by us, which is really great to see, but it's not the month that we tend to celebrate in Australia. Not to say that every month doesn't have to be a month we celebrate Pride, which totally would be up for it's not generally the one that we do. For us, we've had to really search for the Pride events.

Speaker A () | 00:16:50 to 00:17:20
So if something like Pride WA were to create event calendar for the Pride Month, it'd make it a lot easier for someone like us who we wanted to go and support some local small businesses and events and that kind of thing. Also, I reckon they should be an urban list just for Pride. We're calling you to action. We're calling you to action to be creating a Pride calendar to list all of the Pride events so we know which safe spaces and we know which activities and how to be supporting other Pride artists out there. But I think that would be great because it's quite difficult.

Speaker B () | 00:17:20 to 00:17:45
I tell you what, scrolling through absolutely everything to try and find a Pride event. It was hard, but I bloody love a Pride event. There's nowhere better that you feel. It's funny because I feel both incredibly safe because we're around our community, but also, like today when we went to the beautiful Pride event that we did, it's always that half and half and be like my people, but then also being like, please, can you protect us? Because people don't always like us.

Speaker A () | 00:17:45 to 00:17:54
Also, I find a lot of queer places are very inclusive and to be greeted at the door by someone who is also doing ASL I thought that was really beautiful. Yeah.

Speaker A () | 00:17:56 to 00:18:11
So what countries actually celebrate pride Month? We have the UK, United States, Canada, Spain, Israel, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and many more. So when I first looked up, those were the ones that actually came about. But obviously the US is probably the biggest because that's where it started. So that's basically it.

Speaker A () | 00:18:11 to 00:18:26
I thought it was going to be a lot longer, but my notes, I just did a lot of scribble scratch and now this is part two and we're looking at Pink money. So on our last episode, which was Queer Baiting, we talked about Pink money and the pink economy. And so I just wanted to go into more detail. So I researched a little bit more about that. Are you interested in hearing about that?

Speaker B () | 00:18:26 to 00:18:41
Absolutely, I was interested. Last episode been hanging on. So weird. So what is it? So Pink Money, which is sometimes also referred to as Pink Economy or Pink Market, is also referred to as Pink Pond, Pink Dollar and Dorothy Dollar as well.

Speaker A () | 00:18:41 to 00:19:00
Anyway, so it is a term to describe the purchasing power of the LGBTQIA plus community. It is a phenomenon that has influenced changes in areas of marketing and advertising. So the pink apparently is because of the pink triangle. Do you know about the pink triangle? Would you like to take a stab at what the pink triangle is referring to?

Speaker B () | 00:19:01 to 00:19:20
The only thing that my brain thinks of is a vulver and I'm really racking my brain to try and figure out something else, but that's it. What if I say Germany? If I say Nazi Germany, I'm getting the blanket stare. I'm not a history major for anybody out there, just so you know. So the Pic triangle has become a symbol of the LGBTQ rights movement.

Speaker A () | 00:19:20 to 00:19:41
After being used as a badge to identify LGBT people in concentration camps in Nazi Germany, the community decided to reclaim this symbol as a well known icon. I actually didn't know about that until I was doing research for this and I was like, oh, that's quite interesting because I had no idea. So what did you think the pink triangle was before you heard about it? I didn't really think that far. I was just like, Pink triangle?

Speaker B () | 00:19:41 to 00:19:59
Okay, that's so interesting. A little bit of history behind the pink economy it began in the United States in the 1960s, retailers and large companies began to realize a previously ignored, untapped market. They realized that members of the LGBTQIA plus community seemed to have a bigger budget available to spend on goods. Why do you think that is? We don't have kids.

Speaker A () | 00:19:59 to 00:20:17
Correct. This wasn't because the LGBTQIA plus community had higher incomes, but it was more to do with the different consumption habits. Why was this the case? Well, a good percentage did not have children. Well, also, if you think about it, back in the day, it was quite difficult to have children as a person, part of the queer community.

Speaker B () | 00:20:17 to 00:20:45
We had more money and generally we were more open to entertainment. A lot of people part of the queer community were interested in entertainment and therefore I would have thought that they would then spend money on entertainment and really involve and put money into their services. I can see your point of view from all the research. It basically said because they didn't have kids, they had different ways they could spend their money and they had the opportunity to spend more money on themselves than those who did have a child household. So in both the US.

Speaker A () | 00:20:45 to 00:21:21
And Europe, there was a link between the growth of the pink economy and a demand for premium services, which is what you were talking about, like shows and restaurants and that kind of thing, and a demand for luxury products. So according to the portal, it is estimated that the LGBTQIA plus community spent 15% more than the rest of the population. I could agree with that, and I probably say that that would align with how we work today. Still, I would say yes, and I'd say looking at retail therapy is a thing and we just have a bit more trauma than some other people sometimes. I was just going to say all of my queer friends, I believe they probably put more money into the arts than my friends who aren't queer.

Speaker A () | 00:21:21 to 00:21:37
Yeah, I'd agree. There was some contradicting. Sources also say that there was a demand for services that originated due to widespread discrimination by traditional businesses. So if one restaurant wouldn't accept this couple because they're gay, there was a demand for that. So they're like, all right, well, then we'll open up this restaurant and that's a bit more open and we're going to have fancier stuff.

Speaker A () | 00:21:38 to 00:22:17
And so there was the two conflicting resources. One that said it was because of the household and having a bigger budget, and one said, well, there's a demand and that's where there was a market and people tapped into that market. So regardless, companies have recognized the link between the LGBT inclusion and a better economic performance. I'm not surprised because, like we kind of mentioned in queer baiting as well, is that when we see something that represents us, we kind of grab onto it and we roll with it and we hone it. So I can see that that happening within the service industry as well as a queer person, if you see somewhere that is safe for you or is highlighted, that it's great for you.

Speaker B () | 00:22:17 to 00:22:26
Oh, 100%. We're going to support it. Even today. Just we're walking around in Malaga markets and there was a Pride Liberation Ally poster above one of the markets. We're like, well, we have to go in, don't we?

Speaker B () | 00:22:26 to 00:22:41
Oh, damn straight. I was like, I'll spend money here. Anybody who supports queer actively, I'm always willing to go in. And even if there was something, maybe I didn't need to buy more, willing to spend the money because I know that they're an ally or I know they're part of the community and therefore I want to promote them. Yeah.

Speaker A () | 00:22:41 to 00:22:54
And often a lot of the time we don't see it. So when we do see it, we jump on it and we jump on it hardcore. And probably one of the biggest, I think in Perth. The biggest ways that Perth make money off the pink economy is fringe. Yes.

Speaker A () | 00:22:54 to 00:23:01
Everything's also pink. Did you notice that all fringe is all pink? And then all of their little flags are all triangles. Bam. They're profiting off the queers.

Speaker A () | 00:23:01 to 00:23:19
We don't actually know, but there's a lot of queer and inclusive acts in fringe as well. And a lot of the volunteers in that they're actually quite inclusive, which is pretty cool. So do you think we buy a lot and do you think we give a lot back to the economy based on the peak economy? Oh, hell yeah. Anybody who's met us would be like, yeah, definitely.

Speaker A () | 00:23:19 to 00:23:28
Yeah. If you come to our house, we're maximalists. Yes. I wasn't, but I am now. You were, just in different ways.

Speaker A () | 00:23:28 to 00:23:40
Anyway. Do you know what it's called when LGBTQIA plus couples? What do you think they'd refer to us as? So we're an LGBTQIA plus couple who has more purchasing power because we do not have kids? I don't know.

Speaker A () | 00:23:40 to 00:23:46
We're called Dink. I would never have guessed. How on earth was I going to guess that? Dinks? I don't know.

Speaker A () | 00:23:46 to 00:23:55
I'm just asking me questions I'm never. Going to know the answers to. It doesn't make me feel good. Do you know what Dink stands for? Dink, double income, no kids.

Speaker A () | 00:23:55 to 00:24:20
Correct or done. I'm 50 points to gryffindor. So Dink couples tend to make purchasing decisions on more expensive goods. So things like travel, restaurants, luxury clothing, something that family households can't always afford. With pink money becoming more powerful, more and more companies are joining the trend of creating specialized products or services aimed at the LGBTQIA plus community and taking advantage of our purchasing power.

Speaker B () | 00:24:20 to 00:24:47
Jerry, I'm sure you're going to bring this up a little bit later on, but it's interesting how we're talking about things being very positive about integrating into the queer community with these kind of brands and the amount of purchasing power that. Pink money has. But then you look on the flip side about what's happened to Target recently when they've had are you going to talk about this? Not really. So if for those who don't know, is that Target came out with a Pride collection quite recently, I would say probably within the last six months or something.

Speaker B () | 00:24:48 to 00:25:04
And they've received a lot of backlash that's come from people who have said it's not appropriate for kids and not to have out there. Even though it's had most of it's. In the adult section. Most of it's in the adult section, absolutely. And it's had binding swimwear and it's had tucking underwear as well.

Speaker B () | 00:25:04 to 00:25:17
I was watching a lot of Instagram reels about it because I'm like, why are people so angry? Because it's not scandalous. It's not like it's tiny and very revealing. It's colorful, it's comfortable and it's covering. Yeah, it's very covering.

Speaker A () | 00:25:17 to 00:25:55
So it's quite funny when these parents are attacking these products, when very clearly the other products, which are the tiny little G stringy style bathers they're happy for their kids to wear, which is quite interesting. And it's kind of like a bunch of people have jumped on board and attacked it and just made it into something that's not and saying, you're targeting. Kids looking at these clothing. Great thing that I ended up watching about this woman who was explaining how with the Target tops, how they had the binding effect for people who maybe wanted flatter chest, whether they were trans or whether they were uncomfortable about their bodies or had dysmorphia or anything like that. But the binders were quite large and they were quite useful for like, strapping down your chest.

Speaker B () | 00:25:55 to 00:26:14
And I thought, oh, bloody hell, I would love that for a person who's got a rather large chest. It's one of those things that that would be incredibly comfortable, first of all, for the coverage, but second of all, if you're feeling uncomfortable with your body as well as needing more support, having something that's bigger is great. Yeah. And also with the tucking bathers, they're actually adult sized. They weren't kid sized, they were tucking bathers.

Speaker A () | 00:26:14 to 00:26:36
And someone did mention as well, maybe there's a female identifying person who just wants extra support down there. Maybe they're on their period and they just need that extra support. If you want to feel a bit. More covered, a larger gusset, because there are so many undies out there that are very much the Pamela Anderson style baywatch. Sometimes I go to the beach and I'm like, that is full on butchy and but parents are okay with that, but they're not okay with the rainbow on a shirt, which makes no sense.

Speaker A () | 00:26:36 to 00:27:03
And it's really unfortunate that a lot of queer based small brands in America are the ones who are getting impacted because they actually did crossovers with Target and they have all this rains that they can no longer sell. They've created all the designs and they were supposed to get some profits. And they can't reuse those designs because they're owned by Target. And they're losing a lot of money because this is months and months and months of work down the drain because some people have decided that. No, and it's quite interesting because if you're looking at the pink economy, they would have sold out.

Speaker A () | 00:27:03 to 00:27:29
There's some shirts that did sell out before they could pull them down. And so it's quite interesting when you're looking at the pink economy and the purchasing power, that you're actually then having these people who are boycotting these brands, who probably don't buy from the brand anyway. Yeah, because if you had that released over in Australia without the negative backlash. They would sell out other brands, stuff like Bud Light and who were targeted that nobody's going to drink it anymore because of being in a campaign with Dylan Mulvaney. It never used to be that way.

Speaker A () | 00:27:29 to 00:27:54
You chucked on a rainbow and people like, whatever, and all of a sudden it's kind of gone from what I've noticed. It's like, no, we can't have that. We don't do that. I thought we're getting a lot more progressive. And then, I mean, it's always going to be multifactorial, but if you highlight issues, if they're becoming more apparent and they're being spoken about more often, then the people who were anti those issues are going to have to scream louder.

Speaker B () | 00:27:54 to 00:28:27
And it doesn't necessarily mean that that's the majority, it just means that there's a person that like any troll, they're just going to have to be more aggressive to overcome the normalcy that is hitting them. It's just that ridiculous thing, isn't it? It's unfortunate, but it's what happens. It's what you see in a lot of the civil rights activists, don't you, is that whenever there's a whole heap of people trying to highlight an issue out there, there's always going to be some people who come back at it and be like, this is wrong. We've never done things this way.

Speaker B () | 00:28:27 to 00:29:04
When you really look at it, way back in ancient societies, there was a lot less things that we cared about and as improved by a lot of different places, that we didn't really care so much about race and we didn't really care so much about gender and we didn't really care so much about sexuality. But this is something that has been quite natural for quite a long time. And with the way that our society has changed, that there has been these people who thought that these things should be negative. It's where someone has believed that a certain personality or a certain trait or a certain sexuality is better than another. They've just decided that that's the way it is and there is no proof that it is.

Speaker A () | 00:29:04 to 00:29:32
And it's just like, okay, well, this is normal in quotation marks and the rest is abnormal. So therefore it's lesser than yeah, it's crazy. So how powerful exactly is the prior economy? According to the consulting firm LGBT Capital, in 2018, the pink market generated 3.6 trillion in the world. It is estimated that if the LGBTQIA plus community were a country, I still reckon we should do the gay and lesbian kingdom somewhere because its economy would be the fifth largest in the world.

Speaker A () | 00:29:32 to 00:29:52
If all the LGBTQIA plus people got on, one country would be the fifth largest economy in the world. So analysts agreed that the pink economy will grow as the rights of the LGBTQIA plus community increase. I just want to put it out there. LGBTQIA plus inclusion means more money. Basically, be queer friendly and we will come to you with our money.

Speaker A () | 00:29:52 to 00:30:09
That's exactly it. So what do you think is pink washing? I would think it would be quite similar to queer baiting, yes. In the fact that you have a brand or you have a place that says that it's for queer people and it has things that meant to be for queer people, but it's not really. Yeah.

Speaker A () | 00:30:09 to 00:30:32
So basically, pink washing, more commonly known as rainbow washing, this is a campaign's attempt to win over the queer community with shallow advertising and campaigns. So this links back to our episode on queer baiting. Companies exploit the purchasing power of the community. Many of these companies doing so while secretly funding anti LGBT causes and politicians. So there are some brands that have been found out to do that.

Speaker A () | 00:30:32 to 00:30:49
So they'll be like, yeah, Pride Month, but then they end up backing anti LGBT politicians. Yeah, I've heard that. But then there are other companies that are doing it very, very well. Companies like Volley and Nike and Disney, just to name a few, are doing it very, very well. And then you do have those few who do this kind of stuff.

Speaker A () | 00:30:49 to 00:31:30
And what's quite interesting that I have found this year is I'm seeing a lot less LGBT campaigns this Pride Month than ever before. Usually my feed is covered and I think this stems back to all the stuff that's going on in the US. And all the anti LGBT legislation that is coming through is actually having a massive impact on the economy, on advertising and on companies. Well, we've all seen, or if you haven't seen or heard, what's happening with Disney at the moment, and how the legislation that's going through Florida has been very anti queer and anti trans and how Disney have created it was like a queer party, wasn't it? Every June they've been massive on the Pride Month, like everything's rainbow and that kind of stuff.

Speaker A () | 00:31:30 to 00:32:07
And obviously Disney is in Florida and DeSantis didn't want them to celebrate in that kind of stuff. But with Disney, they have kind of their own law almost, where they govern themselves. And so no matter what happens within the state of Florida, they have their own rules and regulations that they abide by because obviously they know that a lot of their cast members are queer. And also the amount of money that Disney brings through to Florida, people massive come from everywhere to see Disney World because it's the only Disney World in the world. And so the amount of revenue that is actually brought through by Disney World, that if they didn't have that, I'm sure that state would actually fall apart.

Speaker A () | 00:32:07 to 00:32:25
So when I went to because I have been to Disney World before, I didn't really see much to Florida besides Disney World. That was their main attraction. So I only was like, okay, when I go there, I'm just going to spend a few days in Disney World and then take off. The only thing I think about when I think about Florida is I think about Disney crocodiles, old people, and the bird cage. That's it.

Speaker B () | 00:32:25 to 00:32:40
Well, that's the whole thing is that if we're talking about peak economy and the amount of revenue they must be getting from the queer community, have you. Seen how many queer community celebrations there are and how many couples go and celebrate at Disney World? Absolutely. I'm not surprised. It's a magical place.

Speaker B () | 00:32:40 to 00:33:19
But it just shows what a brilliant brand that they are that they have turned around when all of these things have happening, which they could very easily have just laid down and be, let's just go with it because there's no point in making waves in this pool because it could come back at us. It's such a beautiful way that a brand is actually turned around and saying, no, this is not acceptable, and we are not going to do what you say because what you're doing is civilly wrong. And it goes against all the freedom, rights and activism that has been happening for multiple generations. And I guess the other thing about Pink Economy is if you look at the kind of merchandise that the Creek community are going for, it's always fun kind of stuff. It's quirky, it's different.

Speaker A () | 00:33:19 to 00:33:36
It's usually really good quality because we like our stuff and we like it when it's good. It's always very colorful and there's always a lot of entertainment and a lot of fun out there. And it's always really good kind of fun. It's not to do with anything that's generally too worrisome if you really look about it. So that's our episode on Pink Economy and Pride Month.

Speaker B () | 00:33:36 to 00:33:48
Yeah, it's been interesting to chat about. And this one is one where we could literally just gas bag for a while. Well, thank you for listening in. Yeah, thank you for listening all the way to the end. Make sure you rate review and subscribe until next time.

Speaker A () | 00:33:48 to 00:33:50
I hope that we have been perfectly clear.

Speaker A () | 00:34:03 to 00:34:23
And if anybody has gotten this far. This is an Easter egg. So if you've listened to the end and you comment be brave on our Instagram, then you'll win one of our let's be perfectly queer pinpacks that you might have listed at the giveaway. Yeah. So, to reiterate, the first person to comment on our post with Be brave will win.

Speaker A () | 00:34:23 to 00:34:27
Let's be perfectly queer. Pinpack yay. Bye.