As threats against the queer community intensify, the enemy isn’t always outside our walls. Sasha Brandt scrutinises the very institutions meant to protect us—businesses, chambers of commerce, and organisations—revealing how their pursuit of profit over purpose has deepened our vulnerabilities. It exposes the fractures within the LGBT micro-society, where complacency and misaligned priorities have left us defenceless in the face of rising hostility.
The world today—marked by the global surge of autocratic powers and anti-democratic forces, the armed conflicts in Gaza and the Middle East, Ukraine, Taiwan, and Sudan, the climate crisis, and a new unpredictable industrial revolution fueled by artificial intelligence—appears to be at a historic watershed. It is a moment that historian Adam Tooze dubbed a ‘polycrisis’.
We live in a time of relentless assaults on the queer community—attacks that come not just from overt opponents but also from within the walls of our own organisations. While the broader fight for equality intensifies, it is becoming painfully clear that some of the institutions meant to protect and uplift us have strayed from their mission. Their eyes, once firmly fixed on the liberation of our people, now seem more focused on fundraising galas and corporate sponsorships than the grassroots struggles they were built to champion.
They’ve traded purpose for profit, leaving the real battle unguarded.
DEI corporate policies, backed by LGBT+ ‘chambers of commerce’ for a price, have now exposed weak and corrupt LGBT+ organisations willing to compromise their values for profit. Pinkwashing was invented by LGBT+ organisations. LGBT+ or not any business is about profit and never about life protection. The proof of concept is how easily, under political pressure, they all bow to the Trump administration in the US, and to the Hungarian, Austrian, or Slovak far-right governments in the EU.
Bellingcat was able to establish that some far-right web stores appeared to be purchasing garments from wholesale manufacturers, whose charters celebrate diversity and equality, before embossing their own hateful messaging onto the clothing and selling it at a profit. Ironically, the manufacturers are often portrayed by LGBT+ associations and chambers as allies, DEI-supportive, supplier-diverse, inclusive, or described with other terms that appeal to corporate structures—for the right price.
In The Atlantic article How the Gay-Rights Movement Lost Its Way, James Kirchick argues: ‘The corruption of GLAAD and other LGBT+ groups should force a reckoning for the gay community, which has no shortage of underfunded grassroots organisations working to address real problems.’
These reports and investigations have long been available, yet we have often chosen to ignore the internal challenges within our micro-society, driven by a fear of what others might think of us. And now, here we are.
Several well-funded LGBT+ organisations have recently come under scrutiny over allegations of financial mismanagement and corruption, GAY45 has learned out of respectable newspapers research. Notable cases include GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign, LGBT Youth Scotland, Identity.Education Romania, Queerworks, Children in Need and others in West and Eastern Europe. In the UK parents’ organisation of trans individuals conspired with Tory MP’s to stop the life-supporting medication for their own kids.
In 2017, Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN) in Ireland faced financial controversies involving unaccounted expenses and misuse of funds for political campaigns. These issues led to internal reviews and resignations within the organization. Broken Rainbow, a UK-based LGBT charity, focused on combating same-sex domestic violence, went into liquidation in 2016 due to financial mismanagement, including lavish spending by its CEO.
CSD Berlin, the organisers of Berlin Pride, came under scrutiny last year and faced public discontent over allegations of improperly using members’ data and a payment of €178,000 to an event agency.
Meanwhile, ILGA, Europe’s largest LGBT+ organisation, has previously faced questions regarding its use of funds and is now under further scrutiny over its connections to Revolut Fintech Bank which is allegedly connected to Russia. Revolut has been a significant supporter of ILGA-Europe since their partnership began in 2019, raising over €1 million for ILGA-Europe amid the investigation by Lithuanian MPs into Kremlin connections. Russia is known as one of the most repressive countries towards LGBT+ people.
A number of LGBT+ businesses are under scrutiny for economic misconduct, beginning with gay Christian billionaire Peter Thiel. Many of them are prominent members of LGBT+ chambers of commerce or business associations and contribute sponsorship to these organisations to cover their improprieties. We cannot find any public official information about how the money is used.
The LGBT Chamber of Commerce of Illinois, the Golden Gate Business Association, and the LGBT Business Center of Raleigh are further examples of corruption, misconduct, and misrepresentation of LGBT+ people.
The examples are numerous. Critics argue that as LGBT+ rights have advanced, some large advocacy organisations have become disconnected from grassroots concerns, prioritising financial gain over meaningful activism. The deepest problem is the covering
These cases, from only the last ten years, have received minimal attention from the LGBT+ press, with queer journalists largely overlooking these cases. Apart from a few newspapers and GAY45, there is a glaring absence of queer publications dedicated to investigative reporting. Many argue it has been easier to ignore these issues and profit from the existing atmosphere of support than to pursue rigorous and uncomfortable investigations.
Meanwhile, all major social media platforms announced in the last weeks that they will cease fact-checking on their platforms, raising further concerns about spreading misinformation and the accountability of influential organisations. The same corporations LGBT+ chambers of commerce praised them for their DEI policies.
Let’s assume all business associations and organisations acted honestly, even though the evidence shows otherwise. What do they do now? It is quiet because, when the wind changes, they will need their money again.
Companies that promoted themselves as champions of equality, such as Meta, Amazon, McDonald’s, Walmart, Ford, Lowe’s, Harley-Davidson, Brown-Forman, John Deere, and many more, have eliminated diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives within their organisations and fired the leaders of the respective departments. LGBT+ was good when we made a profit for them. Now, they’ve dropped us like something disgusting and unwanted.
In 2023, a diverse group—including British lawyers, Polish psychologists, American paediatricians, Malaysian church leaders, and German doctors—convened at a hotel on the outskirts of Warsaw. Individuals, predominantly from Eastern European countries, attended a clandestine conference focused on conversion therapy. They received guidance discussing methods to continue practising this therapy, despite its illegal status in their home countries and its widespread discreditation by international health organisations. ‘Europe Conversion Therapy Conference,’ transpired without any protests or public attention from LGBT organisations. This significant event went unnoticed, potentially impacting young individuals profoundly and enduringly.
‘Our’ organisations do not support quality journalism and do not pay attention to what is really important. Their eyes are on the gold, not the goal.
We live in a time of relentless assaults on the queer community—attacks that come not just from overt opponents but also from within the walls of our own organizations. While the broader fight for equality intensifies, it is becoming painfully clear that some of the institutions meant to protect and uplift us have strayed from their mission. Their eyes, once firmly fixed on the liberation of our people, now seem more focused on fundraising galas and corporate sponsorships.
We must bring the collaboration between the oppressors and the oppressed into the light. No price should be accepted by LGBT+ corporations, chambers, organisations, or Pride events for surrendering our freedom. Reflecting on Hannah Arendt’s seminal work, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963), she critically examined the role of Jewish councils under Nazi occupation. We should examine the role of LGBT organisations in the rise of the far-right in Europe and the USA.
In the meantime, 2,800 Syrians, Iranians, Palestinians, and Afghans have been targeted to be extradited only from Austria. According to an anonymous source from GAY45, 183 of them are LGBT+. In those countries deemed ‘safe,’ they will be sentenced to death.
Molecular Revolution: Psychiatry and Politics (1977) by Félix Guattari introduces the concept of ‘molecular revolution,’ emphasising micro-political changes in social structures, and consciousness rather than traditional, large-scale revolutionary movements. Guattari proposes that transformation occurs through fluid, non-hierarchical, and interconnected processes rather than fixed ideological frameworks. Can we fight again like in the 70’s and 80’s? We believe we can. Raz Ion explored these in The New Battle: Queercore vs Homonationalism and Jude Jones explained the inside of lesbian far-right leader thinking in Alice Weidel: Germany’s Far-Right Lesbian Firebrand.
The sad thing is we should start over because our own people betrayed the cause. It’s disheartening that we must start anew due to betrayal and confusion within our own groups.
This is an urgent call for introspection. As the external threats grow more brazen, the internal failings of our movement’s leadership make us vulnerable, sapping the trust and unity we desperately need. It is not enough to light up buildings in rainbow colours or post hashtags during Pride Month.
Meanwhile, comfort and corruption further invites the co-optation and commercialization of queer culture, at the expense of queer people. The queer micro-society deserves more than symbolic gestures; we need action, accountability, and, above all, integrity within our ranks.
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