Ladies & Gentlemen: Proud Confessions
Amidst the international regression, one had almost forgotten that Pride Month had just begun. When there are suddenly only two genders allowed on ID cards in the United States again, it means the LGBTQ+ community needs more support than ever. Designer Ives Conner thought the same thing, quickly ironing a slogan onto his T-shirt at his recent show to receive the applause: Protect the Dolls.
The term "Dolls" originates from the New York ballroom scene and today stands for transfeminine people, i.e., anyone who identifies as female. The purist trans charity T-shirt, which so pleasantly dispenses with the obligatory rainbow colors, became a hit – a few weeks later, Tilda Swinton and Madonna were wearing it, and it's constantly sold out.
Oh, and the handsome Pedro Pascal also wears it, which is commendable, but irrelevant here. Things are a bit complicated between transfeminine people and biological women. When someone with male chromosomes wins an Olympic medal in women's boxing, like Imane Khelif did last year, biological women can get really angry about the extreme unfairness. But just because it's complicated doesn't mean life should now become a boxing ring where we punch each other in the face (chill out, JK Rowling). As women, we're all in this together—and this T-shirt is a welcome aid.
A good ten years ago, a major German men's magazine came up with the strange idea of having prominent men—they explicitly said: heterosexual men—kiss each other for a photo spread. Herbert Grönemeyer, Thomas D., and a few others kissed on the cover, signaling that they wanted to send a message against Putin's anti-queer policies. This PR stunt was almost as embarrassing as it was risk-free (nothing is known about Grönemeyer's subsequent banned Russian tours), but the media applause thundered. Win-win for the straight men!
These were precisely the years in which Pride parades, originally a protest for the human rights of gays and lesbians, became a major corporate carnival. Sports, breweries, and DAX-listed companies gave their corporate logos a four-week rainbow paint job on Instagram or even set up their own party floats. Even the publishing group Axel Springer, the sender of such woke headlines as "Leftists want to introduce gay education," was now celebrated as an ally , a loyal ally of LGBTQ people.
Since it suddenly costs companies in the US real money to actively engage with minorities, a striking number of company logos, which last year were still colorful just in time for Juneteenth, remain black and white. Pride parades are reporting slumps in sponsorship money. As bitter as this setback is, perhaps large-scale smooching men, like this one in Diesel's new Pride capsule, will at least become a bit punk again in the future. The motif comes from the Tom of Finland Foundation, which has been supporting queer art since the 1980s. After all, no one needs false allies, no matter which side of the Atlantic.
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