In the 1960s and 1970s, queer liberation (what we now call “LGBT equality”) was seen by its advocates as an all-inclusive movement intrinsically bound to other social justice movements: there could be no justice for queer people without justice for people of color, women, workers, those in other nations, etc. Accordingly, queer activists worked hard to build coalitions with all those determined to fight for justice. 

Nowadays, the LGBT movement does more branding than coalition building. 

Steven W. Thrasher, who has been nationally recognized for his LGBT journalism, called out national LGBT nonprofits and advocates, colloquially referred to by some as the glitter industrial complex, in a Gawker article, contending that the LGBT activists and nonprofits “have been bought, paid-for and sold to the highest bidder.”

It’s true: corporate America runs the LGBT movement, or at least the part of the LGBT movement that gets press time and donors. Their sponsorship keeps the LGBT movement from addressing the issues that matter most for the LGBT community and beyond.

Thrasher highlights that many of the biggest donors to the Human Rights Campaign, the multi-million dollar nonprofit that receives the bulk of donations for LGBT issues, are drone manufacturers. These donors profit off of the United States’ use of drones to kill civilians, including children, with little oversight or accountability. Drone manufacturers are far from the only ethically dark gray to black donors to LGBT advocacy organizations: a brief perusal of any major LGBT organization’s list of donors reveals that corporate black hats like Bank of America, BP, Coke, and Nike all provide major cash to LGBT nonprofits.

 … Progress for queer people means nothing if it comes at the expense of others also marginalized and fighting for justice. Gay advocacy paid for by companies that poison the land, treat their workers unfairly, and assist in the killing of children from other nations is worthless in the long run. If we truly want a world where LGBT people are equal, we have to recognize that such equality is contingent upon justice for all people.

Not when health care is provided to every same-sex couple, but where health care is accessible to all; not when violent homophobia is eliminated, but when violence based on hatred of any group is eliminated. It might sound Utopian, and it might not be achieved through high profile fund raising dinners. But the alternative, inequality and corporate exploitation draped in a pride flag, is neither progressive nor equal.

HRC consistently sides with society’s 1% against the 99% … a strategy that consistently ignores the needs of 99% of LGBT people.

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On February 4, the Human Rights Campaign gave its 2012 Corporate Equality award to Goldman Sachs, the infamous investment bank typically associated with greed and inequality. While Goldman has an admirable diversity recruiting program for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people and other groups traditionally excluded from Wall Street, hiring practices are just one of many fields where a corporation may have a social impact. Looking at its broader impact on LGBT rights and other forms of inequality, it is clear that Goldman Sachs is blatantly undeserving of the Corporate Equality award. Furthermore, HRC’s decision to give Goldman this award is a telling indictment of an organization increasingly at odds with queer activists across the country.

 … By focusing on this incredibly privileged group of Wall Street employees, HRC is ignoring the needs of normal LGBT people. Awards like the Corporate Equality award enable Goldman Sachs to create a false image of social responsibility while continuing to perpetuate inequality in all of its forms. However, LGBT activists with a social conscience have responded quickly, organizing protests in NYC and San Francisco as well as a petition on change.org. The whole debacle has ultimately served to implicate HRC for supporting Wall Street abuses and has solidified HRC as an organization that has lost any memory of what the fight for equality is all about.