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rainbowcapitalism · 3 years

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what is rainbow capitalism (and why should I care)?

There's a few definitions out there, mainly differing in wording, but the gist of it is the same. I personally like the way it's defined on urban dictionary for its simplicity: "The action of companies pretending to support LGBT+ communities and/or specifically making merchandise for more profit" (source).

Rainbow capitalism is sometimes also called pink capitalism, or gay capitalism.

Essentially, it's companies and corporations using pride as a selling point to attract customers so they can make more money, without the side of activism that queer people get just from living their lives. This has led to the corporate invasion of queer spaces like pride, where you see more companies represented than people. It also leads to "allyship" being rooted in consumerism rather than actual activism and allyship, and turns pride into a way to make money instead of a liberation movement (remember, the first pride was a riot).

(source: https://webcomicname.com/post/185682073569)

[image description: a webcomic from webcomicname.com. It’s 3 panels arranged horizontally and titled “PRIDE”.

The first panel has a light blue background and features a pink blob-like character on the left. They have their arms raised and a neutral expression. To the right of the character is a sign pointing to the right with a rainbow flag on it. The character is speaking, shown in a yellow speech bubble at the top of the panel. The text reads “I can’t wait to go to LGBT+ pride”.

The second panel features the same character and background, this time without the rainbow sign. Their arms are still raised and they are slightly smiling. The speech in the yellow bubble reads “& see all sorts of people celebrating who they are”.

The third panel shows the character at a pride parade. The light blue background is sky, and the bottom part of the panel is bright green, with a purple stripe for the road. At the top in the sky is an orange banner that reads “pride parade” and there are three box-shaped vehicles on the road. They are gray and each has the word “corporation” written on it. They each have a pride flag on top. The pink character is in the bottom left, with a small yellow speech bubble to the right of them. They are slightly frowning, and the text reads “oh no.”]

There's a whole lot of reasons why capitalism itself isn't that great - rainbow or not. You can read a quick overview about that here. Rainbow capitalism specifically takes away support from actual queer people and businesses who actually need your money more than a corporation does. And chances are, your local business with handmade products is not exploiting workers in a foreign country.

(source: https://twitter.com/clarkbarkeep/status/1389663550700990474?lang=en)

[image description: A screenshot of a quote tweet. The tweet being quoted is by Deanne Revel, @deannerevel and is dated May 3, 2021. The text reads “Merch doesn’t fix Disney’s problem w/ #LGBTQ representation. But someone made the call on these pins and that was a good call.

🌈FIRST merch w/ the #Transgender Pride flag, #Bisexual flag & #Lesbian flag.

🌈FIRST use of the Philadelphia 8-stripe #Pride flag w/ black and brown.”

Attached is an image of the Disney merch: four pins shaped like Mickey Mouse ears. They are on a black backing that has a rainbow across it and the text on the rainbow reads “Disney rainbow collection” with Disney in a slightly cursive font, and the word rainbow in the red strip above the word Disney, and collection is on the purple stripe below. From left to right are the Philadelphia pride flag (from top to bottom, black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blow, purple), the trans flag (blue, pink, white, pink, blue), the bi flag (pink, purple, blue), and the lesbian flag (red-ish orange, lighter orange, white, light pink, darker pink).

Quoting this tweet is another from Mythical Hog Bear, @ClarkBarKeep, from May 4, 2021. It reads “The fact that the creator of the lesbian flag has to routinely ask for donations while her design is in the fucking Disney store makes me angry enough to cry. Donate to @diabolicdyke"]

Now, this is just an overview, and there's tons of resources out there to learn, even a wikipedia page of its own. Please don't use this as your only source, but as a starting point :)

#from the admin #sourced #admin id #rainbow capitalism #pride month #pride #queer #lgbt #lgbtq #disney #queer pride #lgbtq pride #lgbtq+

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kuromichad · 3 years

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also idk how to really explain it but many things, particularly in emo culture, at that time were like... schrodinger’s gay... it was like. you WANTED things to be gay but knew better than to like, believe it, and just the like willingness of pop culture figures to Play with it, and the experience of having fandoms or whatever be excited by it along with you, was basically good enough... i feel like even though i was literally into them at the time and was openly bisexual and also clearly now am trans i like didnt even really comprehend how like gay/gender mcr was until i. saw people talking about it on tumblr like it was kind of a moment of Huh... So it wasn’t like, entirely in my head... does that make any sense. idk how much this was like a matter of the culture at the time (yknow, back when we didnt have gay marriage or like, performative wokeness) objectively vs my own weird lens on it due to not knowing i was trans yet but. Yeah

i think maybe the part that’s difficult to untangle is that like, there is a distinction between ‘doing things that will get you called gay’ and ‘doing things that ARE gay’ and the category of ‘things that will get you called gay’ was so broad and volatile back then. so yeah there were loads of emo bands with dudes who would do ‘things that will get you called gay’ aka wearing makeup, tight pants, singing a certain way, having lyrics about your Feelings. but many of those dudes would let it be called Guyliner, and their Feelings lyrics were still always about girls (and still had the capacity to be misogynist and/or violent), and just generally you could tell that even though they were willing to get Called gay they werent. vs there were other people who didnt like, assert masculinity in the same way, and were noticeably more comfortable in that gnc emo Look than some other guys were (and didn’t abandon it when they got more successful lol), and had less-straight or actively gay lyrics... but like. idk i think at least to me it still just came off like... ‘well i like that these guys arent being distractingly tryhard masc’ and that was it, rather than registering as ‘oh this is gay for real. youre not just like hoping it is or projecting like it’s actually there’ lmao.

and so i think maybe if youre younger and dont Remember the 2000s like that, you look at the entire scene and youre like well none of these celebrities are like flag-carrying LGBT Activists now, so all of that was Intentional Corporate Queerbaiting, or something... or like that’s not even what that op is saying huh. like they think the specific purpose of mcr (or, im guessing, emo in general) was to like Steal Queer Aesthetics and sell them to the public...? and like, sure, the whole Emo Boys Kissing thing generated profit but in the form of convincing guys who did not want to kiss boys to just dress similar to boys who kiss each other. the only people who actually carried on that part of the trend were like. people with actual gay desires. everyone else was just like being cishet in their emo jeans and feeling very proud about how counterculture they were for letting people call them gay for wearing emo jeans.

and the homoeroticism and androgyny in emo didnt just. come from nowhere??? it wasnt made up by marketing. if you wanted to accuse a band of selling a gay aesthetic in a straight way you have to go WAY farther down the chain of influence, like when you would end up briefly seeing Guyliner on bands that were making like, cheap top 40 butt rock for dads, because it did eventually become like defanged enough that it was like ‘this is just the thing to do if youre Alternative’ but. actual emo, especially early 2000s emo, especially early 2000s emo boys who were actually willing to kiss boys, were not the ones selling it in a straight way... they were the ones who were (As many gay people are) trendsetting and interesting enough to prompt other people to (whether earnestly or not) take on similar fashion and behaviors in order to like, form community. and that community of ‘people with an Alternative and often gay fashion and music sense’ just happened to get big enough to turn into a money thing

and again, getting mad about emo queerbaiting in 2021 is just completely fucking absurd because everyone at the time was so like cautious and defeatist that even gay people who wanted it to be gay didnt like believe it might actually be gay. this is why i cant stand queerbaiting discourse like bro at the end of the day no matter what it’s just gonna be about You and what You’re bringing to it and you could very easily be overlooking some important shit that’s, yknow, actually there, in the course of chasing after some imagined perfect reward. *2000s internet voice* End rant!

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earwaxinggibbous · 5 years

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“Scared of the Dark” - Li’l Wayne and Ty Dolla $ign/”Falling Down” by Li’l Peep and XXXTENTACION

In the words of Drake, I’m upset.

So I just saw Into the Spiderverse a few days ago. It was a pretty good movie. I don’t know shit about superheroes and it’s all white noise to me, MCU this and Suicide Squad that, but I love a good animated move that isn’t generic CGI pulled out of Walt Disney’s frozen asshole.

But you know what really dragged me into the fray was a bopping soundtrack. I mean one of the big hits was by Swae Lee and Post Malone, two yodeling fuckheads who I’d die for. And it’s a great song, too.

So why am I mad? What is there to be mad about?

Scared of the Dark is an amazing song, with a nice piano and trap beat, a powerful chorus by Ty Dolla $ign and Li’l Wayne actually putting effort in. Dare I say I might actually like this song. But hey, there’s actually three artists on this. And who’s the third?

WHY. WHY. WHY. WHY. WHY!

One of the best songs on a soundtrack by a great movie, and some asshole decided to dump another fucking postmortem recording of XXXTENTACION onto the track. You know, the known abuser and homophobe whose biggest hit revolved around the idea of threatening suicide to keep your girlfriend in check. A human scum pile who’s gonna be remembered as a legend in the same way King Tut is. He added nothing to society and died young.

I’m angry.

This is honestly indicative of the music scene as a whole nowadays. Who owns posthumous tracks? Do we even have the right to release them? We’ve been doing things like this for years, but I honestly blame people like JT and Drake for it becoming even more common. Remember when they both sampled Michael Jackson? Specifically tracks that MJ never wanted released? After he was dead? And now suddenly everyone thinks it’s an honor to the dead to do this?

I’m so, so tired. Why of all people is it that XXXTENTACION gets to continue existing. You never hear from Li’l Peep anymore, but this guy? It reminds me of how the Saw series has managed to get to eight films despite Jigsaw having died in the third movie. X is the Jigsaw of the rap game.

We need to stop shoving dead people’s samples in songs. Especially dead people who do not deserve and should not earn a legendary status. On a song that has nothing to do with what they’re saying.

Remember Falling Down?

This song was a postmortem track by Li’l Peep and iLoveMakonnen titled Sunlight On Your Skin. X allegedly wanted to record a song for Li’l Peep, as he’d apparently wanted to record with him before he died. Falling Down was released shortly after X’s death. And that’s fine, even though it’s not his song and obviously iLoveMakonnen was clearly trying to profit off of their deaths.

One problem though.

So I don’t know if X knew this or whatever, but in case you don’t know, X shared a prison cell with a gay man. Said gay man looked at him, looked at him in a way he didn’t like, and X beat the living shit out of him. X is a known homophobic person. Had he improved? Doubtful.

To put him on a track with an out bisexual man, a bisexual man in the rap community of all places which is not exactly the coziest of spaces for LGBT people, is offensive. A posthumous track made for a bisexual rapper, and iLoveMakonnen slapped XXXTENTACION into it for money. Not only is that not fair to Li’l Peep, but it’s not fair to any of his fans. And it’s a blatant cash grab because of X’s rampant fanbase.

Yes, he’s dead. But to lump him in with Li’l Peep just because they died in the same year is cruel. To honor his music and his crimes simply because he died young is an offense to everyone he hurt. To consider him a legend and continuously sprinkle his recordings into every song for a quick buck is an offense even to people who like him and associate with him. It’s not an honor, it’s a flex. It’s saying, “we own the rights to this dead man’s audio and we can do whatever we want with it”.

It’s disingenuous, it’s immoral, and it’s wrong.

We need to stop profiting off of the deaths of young celebrities. We need to stop these fucking grave robbers. We can’t allow this, there is no reason to allow this other than blind nostalgia. And the worst thing is, it sells. Nobody realizes how much of a gross move this is. X’s fans, and Peep’s fans for that matter, miss them so much that they don’t realize they’ve been duped by record executives trying to beat gold out of corpses.

And to ruin a perfectly good song just to make money off of a dead man, and a dead abuser and homophobe at that, is absolutely sickening. Blindly allowing corporations to make money from dead rappers is not okay, and we need to shout out against this instead of allowing it. It is not an honor. It is not a gift. It is an offense, and should be seen as such.

I’m upset. With everyone involved here.

#song review #negative review #pop song review #panda posts #lil wayne #ty dolla $ign #lil peep #i refuse to tag him you cant make me

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reorganisingpridesheffield · 6 years

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Reorganising Pride Sheffield

How Pride can be improved

We are a group of LGBTQ+ community members from Sheffield and the surrounding area who have genuine concerns about the way that Sheffield Pride is being run and has been run in the past.

Recent events and current Pride Sheffield Committee policy have forced us to speak out for a better Pride that recognises our past victories and future needs.

Pride is for all members of the LGBTQ+ community, but with the manner that the Pride Sheffield Committee has organised and conducted themselves, we feel they do not share our beliefs.

Pride is political

We are hurt and angry about Pride Sheffield's statement on social media claiming that Pride is “a celebration, not a protest.” In addition to this falsehood, the original application further ignored Pride’s origins and meaning by stating “we will not be accepting any applications by Political Groups for this years (sic) event.’’

In a statement to Pink News, director of Pride Sheffield Committee Darren Hopkinson stated: “It’s the same group of people every time we have an issue who we have problems with. We are currently working with our lawyers to take action against those who have created all this drama for no reason.”

When Hopkinson realised the error of his statement to Pink News, he then refuted that the statement was published by Pride Sheffield at all, stating “we did not put that statement out…legal action is now being taken.”

Hopkinson eventually took responsibility for Pride Sheffield and his own words and retracted the statement.

Because of these statements made by the head of organising and others, we believe that Pride Sheffield are still attempting run events under the same ethos of ‘Pride as Party’, stripping the event of political meaning.

We need to remember that Pride is indeed a celebration, but also a protest and a political statement. Lest we forget, there are still countries around the world where our LGBTQ+ family cannot be visible in away way, on penalty of imprisonment or death.

Currently, there are no free spaces to organise community events at Pride.

Pride Sheffield needs to recognize that the struggle still exists for many by creating spaces for grassroots community organisations at the forefront of fighting for our rights, and our siblings around the world.

We want space to host free workshops to help educate the public and the community about our rights and needs.

We want spaces to honour LGBTQ+ people that have come before us, and share our history, and mourn those we have lost.

We cannot fully understand the battles and sacrifices made for us and the work yet to come without such spaces.

Police out of Pride

As an alternative to police attending pride to offer “security”, we urge the current committee to consider volunteer security to lessen police presence. Additionally, we believe that Pride Sheffield should consult with black and minority ethnic LGBTQ+ people about police presence, and listen to what they have to say.

Police don’t protect

During Pride Sheffield 2017, South Yorkshire Police allowed a hate preacher to shout homophobia into the crowd using his megaphone in Endcliffe Park. The man was yelling homophobic slurs and damning passersby to hell. Having stationed himself in the middle of the park, he was impossible to ignore.

The police refused to remove him or even ask him to leave, stating it was a matter of freedom of expression.

Section 4A of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 states that :

(1) A person is guilty of an offence if, with intent to cause a person harassment, alarm or distress, he— (a) uses threatening or abusive words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour, or (b) displays any writing, sign or other visible representation which is threatening or abusive, thereby causing that or another person harassment, alarm or distress.

We believe that using slurs, and speaking angrily in a crowd at passersby in a public space gave the police grounds to legally remove this person. They chose not to.

A community member, in an attempt to peacefully end the spread of hate, pulled the cable out of the megaphone. The police reacted by grabbing their wrist and twisting them away. They pulled their hand free, but not before the officer left them with bruises and lacerations.

When the crowd uproar finally forced the police to act, they didn’t ask the preacher to leave. Instead, they told him he could remain at the main entrance of the park.

South Yorkshire Police protected the ‘freedom of speech’ of a bigot over the health and safety of LGBTQ+ people and allies.

Police should not be allowed to use Pride for publicity

In 2017, police vehicles were parked in the festival site while running lights and sirens. They played with children while carrying firearms.

This is a blatant attempt to normalise an armed police presence at community events. Their presence and actions shows no concern for the needs and safety of the marginalised people that they have harmed in the past and continue to harm today. We believe armed police should never be the norm.

We believe that Pride Sheffield should consult with black and minority ethnic LGBTQ+ people about police presence, and listen to what they have to say, as they are most vulnerable to police violence.

Having the police armed and present at community events shows a callous disregard for the concerns and safety of BME people.

Recent statistic show that BME deaths in police custody are double that of white British people, despite only representing 13% of the UK’s population. Overall deaths in police custody have risen 64% in the past year alone.

Prioritise community groups

Historically, Pride march leaders are not corporate sponsors, but LGBTQ+ community members and allies who have shown great support.

However, at the Pride march in Sheffield, corporate sponsors such as Aviva, Nando’s and Sainsbury’s are usually selected as march leaders. We believe it is inappropriate to sell a position of privilege and trust to the highest bidder. Parade leaders need to be community members, not corporations.

In selecting corporations over community, Pride Sheffield is promoting ‘pinkwashing’: a marketing strategy where corporations fund acceptable, widely supported LGBTQ+ events for publicity commercial gain. Frequently this strategy is used to hide previous wrong-doings, or gloss over a lack of anti-oppressive practices the rest of the year.

A Pride parade should never be lead by a for-profit company, but instead by groups whose work challenges homophobia, transphobia, biphobia, and all forms of oppression.

Parade leaders need to be community members LGBTQ+ leaders and allies. People and organisations who have shown great support should be chosen to represent the achievements of their communities, not a faceless international corporation.

We believe leaders should be nominated based on merit, not their ability to buy their way to the front of the march.

Keep Pride Sheffield free and accessible

In addition to having a corporation lead the parade, Pride Sheffield Committee is doing charging community groups and charities to march (this is on top of having ticketed events such as “the official after-party”.)

We march for our rights, for visibility, for celebration. What should be a free right to all LGBTQ+ people, allies, and charities now has a price tag.

LGBTQ+ people are statistically shown to work in lower paying jobs. Charities and grassroots organisations don’t have spare money lying around. As a result, the fee to march would most likely exclude the people who need visibility and support the most, such as refugees, migrants, and young people.

We believe that Pride Sheffield Committee should let community members march for free, in addition to giving community groups free stalls, and reinstating the community tent.

Pride Sheffield events should never be for profit, and main events such as the parade and stalls should be free and accessible to those who deserve them most.

Events that cost money to attend should have tickets available for free or at a discount rate for students, disabled people, or those who are unwaged.

Any proceeds made at Pride Sheffield after covering costs of events, should be provided directly to Sheffield LGBTQ+ welfare support groups, such as Lesbian Asylum Support Sheffield (LASS) and SAYiT.

We want to be involved

The Pride Sheffield Committee needs to advertise meetings widely and encourage people to run for positions on the committee who represent the breadth of BAME groups, disabled people, migrants, trans people, women and other marginalised groups. It is not enough to say “you are welcome here”, they need to show their desire for the participation of disabled people, of BME and QTPOC, by going out and meeting them in their own spaces and hearing about what would make Pride truly inclusive and special for them.

Worryingly, there seem to be no public policies or practices that typically exist for such large organisations, such as safer spaces and accountability policy documents.

Pride Sheffield should host at least 3 open meetings a year, in which any member of Sheffield’s LGBTQ+ community should be allowed to attend, hear reports on the committee’s work so far and share any ideas or concerns they have. These events should be accessible, free, and widely advertised.

We believe Pride is for all members of the LGBTQ+ community. When Pride is free from fear of policing, free from fear of exclusion, then we will truly have an event everyone can be proud of.

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For more information about police presence and abuse at the 2017 Pride Sheffield, please visit the Action for Trans Health Statement.

For more information about what constitutes hate speech/hate crime under UK law, the Sussex Police have created a guide for LGBT+ people.

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flipfundingstuff · 4 years

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How to Support LGBTQIA Businesses Beyond Pride Month

Every June, businesses break out the rainbow: Logos, t-shirts, signs, and email signatures are everywhere. But do rainbows really add up to supporting the LGBTQIA community?

Pride for corporations has largely become performative in an attempt to capitalize on public opinion shifts, according to Harvard Business Review. 67% of millennials and Gen-Z do not believe businesses should be allowed to refuse services to LGBTQIA people for religious reasons, compared to 60% overall. 63% of Americans also agree that gay marriage should be legal, up from 27% in 1996. With so much support, corporations want to cash in.

With 1.4 million LGBTQIA businesses in the US, it will take more than rainbows for a few weeks each June to lift up a historically marginalized community. Here’s how individuals can make a difference.

Standing Up for LGBTQIA Rights

One way businesses large and small can support the LGBTQIA community—and LGBTQIA-owned businesses—is by banding together in coalitions against political action that threatens civil rights. Dollars often speak louder than words, at least for politicians.

“The historic transformation of this community’s place in society has been led not by government or politicians, but instead by corporations that have embraced and supported their own LGBTQ employees, reached out to earn business and loyalty from LGBTQ consumers, and through advertising, helped normalize LGBTQ people and LGBTQ families for mass audiences,” writes Thomas Roth and David Paisley in the Washington Post. “Whether out of self-interest or goodwill, corporations have often been there for LGBTQ communities first.”

In Indiana, for example, when Vice President (then Governor) Mike Pence signed a bill allowing businesses to turn away LGBTQIA customers and employees under a “religious exemption,” 12 businesses pulled out of upcoming conventions, representing a loss of $60 million. The Indiana Coalition helped encourage this campaign and change the law.

A similar situation occurred in response to North Carolina’s “bathroom bill,” which restricted transgender rights for public and school bathrooms. Shortly after the bill was signed, more than 140 prominent CEOs responded in an open letter to the governor, and the state lost $630 million in canceled events. This kind of pressure contributed to a later repeal of the law and subsequent replacement. (Though it’s less clear if the replacement is any better.)

Supporting businesses that have joined a coalition or working within your business to sign petitions or end sponsorship deals and events in states actively working to discriminate against LGBTQIA people, like this list of companies that boycotted North Carolina in 2017, can be a start to reversing years of discrimination.

More Than Rainbow Purchases

Just because a business sells Pride-inspired merchandise doesn’t mean it actually supports the LGBTQIA community. In fact, some businesses actively donate to anti-gay campaigns, even though they sport the requisite rainbow logos and talk about inclusivity during Pride month.

Look for companies donating percentages of the profits, or even better, look for LGBTQIA-owned businesses. Directories like this one from the US Small Business Association can help find LGBTQIA-owned businesses to support.

Some specific campaigns for 2020 that go beyond optics include:

Urban Outfitters’ limited edition designs. The profits will be donated to GLSEN, an organization working to end discrimination and harassment for LGBTQIA youth.

Adidas’ Pride collection. The specific collection profits won’t be donated, but Adidas regularly contributes to The Trevor Project.

The Pride Shop by Banana Republic and Gap. Gap Inc. will donate $60,000 to the UN Free and Equal Campaign.

Another way to look for businesses to support is through sponsorship lists of charities and nonprofits working to support the LGBTQIA community, such as this list from the Trevor Project.

Supporting LGBTQIA Businesses Is Supporting Your Community

When you support LGBTQIA-owned businesses, you’re not just helping individual entrepreneurs and business owners but also their employees. The Supreme Court affirmed in Bostock vs. Clayton County Georgia that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 includes protections for gay, lesbian, and transgender employees from discrimination. It took until June 2020 to make it illegal for companies to fire someone for identifying as gay on a federal level (21 states already had protections in place).

“LGBT people have come a long way in the last generation; the country has come a long way in the last generation; and the Supreme Court has come a long way in the last generation,” Yale Law professor William Eskridge told NPR.

Another indicator of real support for the community is how corporations treat their employees. Basic policies like paid parental leave regardless of gender, establishing inclusive policies in the workplace like normalizing pronouns, and creating LGBTQIA groups for employees are just the start.

Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index establishes a benchmark for LGBTQIA-friendly policies, with a 100% designation meeting the full list of criteria for workplace equality, including training, a diversity council, equal benefits for same-sex partnerships, and demonstrated public support for the community. In 2002, only 13 companies received the 100% designation—in 2020, it’s over 200. Businesses ranging from Bank of America to Accenture and Nordstrom received this year’s designation.

Go Beyond Rainbows This Pride Month

To truly support LGBTQIA-owned businesses, evaluate the choices you make with your money—a little extra effort can go a long way. It’s not enough to assume that just because a company sports a rainbow logo or participates in a Pride Parade that they’re truly an ally to the community.

When it comes to your business, evaluate partnerships and initiatives through a lens of diversity and inclusion, whether that’s donating a percentage of your profits during the month of June, signing a local petition against a discriminatory policy, or evaluating the benefits you offer your employees to make sure they’re truly equal for all.

The post How to Support LGBTQIA Businesses Beyond Pride Month appeared first on Lendio.

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viralhottopics · 7 years

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Gays Against Guns: can LGBTQ community curb the gun lobby?

After the Orlando nightclub shootings, Americas queer community has the gun lobby firmly in its sights. Can they succeed where so many have failed, asks Rupert Neate

Patty Sheehans biggest worries on 11 June 2016 were parking tickets, potholes and whether her latest artwork was a good enough likeness of her cat, Loui. The Orlando city commissioner had stayed up late painting Loui that muggy Saturday night.

Seven months later the portrait remains unfinished. Sheehan was woken by a phone call early the next morning telling her that a gunman armed with a military-style assault rifle had opened fire on clubbers at Pulse, an LGBT nightclub three miles from her door.

Within minutes, she was on the scene. Sheehan stood watch outside Pulse until 11pm, getting home to realise the blood-splattered pavement shed been standing on had been so hot that the soles of her feet had burned through her shoes. She had helped the 53 wounded and the families of the 49 people who lost their lives in less time than it took to read their names at the memorial service. She went back the next day at 4am, and the next, for two weeks. Emails about parking permits, recycling and other day-to-day concerns of a city commissioner were left to pile up in her inbox.

Gay protest group stages die-in against gun stock investments

Sheehan, who became the first out official in central Florida when she was elected in 2000, had a new mission: gun control. Potholes, regrettably, would have to wait. As a city official, gun control measures dont normally apply to me, she said. I frankly thought: Let the big guys in Washington deal with it, but when the Pulse attack happened it came to our streets. If DC cant do this, someone has got to do it. If it takes a little city commissioner in Orlando to say it, so be it.

Sheehan is part of a growing movement among gay people across America vowing to take on the gun death epidemic, following successful campaigns for marriage equality and the repeal of the governments Dont Ask Dont Tell policy, which prevented gay soldiers from serving their country openly.

Gays Against Guns (Gag) is a collective, based in New York City, that includes several veterans of Act Up, the activist group that forced President Reagan to respond to the Aids epidemic. It has begun a campaign of civil disobedience and direct action against gun companies and their supporters.

It devastated me: Patty Sheehan with clergyman Kelvin Cobaris (centre) and a local gay rights campaigner after the Pulse shooting. Photograph: Joe Burbank/AP

John Grauwiler, one of Gags three founders, makes for an unlikely activist. He is a muscled, 6ft, 46-year-old teacher and fitness fanatic who commutes on his beaten-up bike from his East Village apartment to his school in Brooklyn. Over Sunday brunch at NoHo B Bar, Grauwiler recalled the moment he heard the news about the Pulse attack in a text from his mother in New Jersey.

OMG, John, Im so sorry, her text read. He initially had no idea what she was referring to, but it became painfully clear when he scrolled through other texts and checked Facebook.

It devastated me, quite frankly, Grauwiler said. When Sandy Hook [the 2012 massacre of 20 children at a school in Connecticut] happened, it hit me as a teacher. With the Charleston church shooting [in which nine African-American parishioners were killed in 2015] it hit me as a black man. And now with Orlando, it hit me as a gay man, he said. I thought: Fuck it, lets do something!

Grauwiler, who teaches English in Brooklyns leafy Carroll Gardens neighbourhood, said he believes so strongly in the need for tougher gun control under a Donald Trump presidency that he is prepared to break the law to draw attention to it. He thinks direct action is the only way to achieve change. It has always worked, and it always will, he said. Lobbying has a value, but it tends to happen at a slower pace and behind closed doors.

Grauwiler didnt intend to become an activist, not now nor during the Aids crisis, when he was one of the youngest members of Act Up. I had come to the city in 1989 from Jersey City as an 18-year-old to live my life, he said. But, of course I heard about Aids, and people were dying. I thought I was going to die as well, and I had to do something. He went to his first Monday night Act Up organising meeting at the arts and architecture university Cooper Union. I belonged. I felt like I finally, somehow, had some control of my destiny, Grauwiler said. He helped by handing out clean needles to drug addicts in the then no-go Lower East Side.

Man with a message: John Grauwiler, one of the founders of Gays Against Guns. Photograph: Christopher Lane for the Observer

Now Grauwiler, with Gag co-founders Kevin Hertzog and Texas-born Brian Worth, runs his own organising meetings on Thursday nights at the Center, New Yorks LGBTQ community space in the West Village. At the slightly chaotic meetings, Gag members debate the best ways to end the corporate machine profiting from gun death.

Campaigns have included die-in protests that saw Gag members storm the Manhattan offices of money manager BlackRock, which is one of the biggest investors in gun companies, including Smith & Wesson. Dressed in white T-shirts cropped to display as much gym-honed bicep as possible and spray painted with the Gays Against Guns slogan, the protesters held placards stating: Gun$ sell. People die. $tock soars.

The protesters ranging in age from teenagers to people in their 80s gathered in Paley Park and marched towards BlackRocks headquarters. They were led by dozens of silent, white-veiled figures carrying placards with the names and faces of victims from Pulse and other massacres, including some of the 20 six- and seven-year-olds who had been at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012.

After BlackRock refused to send anyone out to listen to their concerns, they performed a die-in in the foyer 12 people lying on the floor to represent the dozen people killed with weapons including a Smith & Wesson MP assault rifle at a cinema in Aurora, Colorado, in 2012. Outside the office on 52nd Street protesters dropped blood red-dyed popcorn around white chalk-outlines of victims.

Our actions are in your face. Theyre very visceral with people screaming about death and demanding change, Grauwiler said. Theyre something the world will see.

Some of them are funny, too. Grauwiler and his Gaggers sing tongue-in-cheek Christmas carols adapted by Broadway performer and Gag member Mark Leydorf to draw attention to horrors of gun violence and the National Rifle Associations (NRA) influence. Gags version of Silent Night sung to Christmas shoppers at Rockefeller Center goes like this: Silent night. Holy night. Terrified until we died. This is life in the USA, where we worship the NRA.

Rock and a hard place: Gays Against Guns stage a protest at the Manhattan offices of BlackRock, massive investors in gun companies. Photograph: Carlo Allegri/Reuters

Gag also targets high-street brands that partner with the NRA, including car rental companies, Visa, and Wyndham Hotels. Grauwilers message to those firms: Its us or them. End your relationship with the death business or the LGBTQ community ends its relationship with you. According to a recent study, the combined annual disposable income of the LGBTQ community in the US is estimated at $917bn.

The numbers turning up at Gags weekly meetings have increased in the wake of Trumps victory, as, Grauwiler says, people are increasingly looking for a focus to direct their anger at after the reality TV stars election. The most recent Gag meeting lasted eight hours as members debated whether or not Gag should become Gat Gays Against Trump. It was decided that Gag would retain its focus on gun control, but the group has joined the wider protest movement picketing Trump Tower.

Gag the acronym was chosen knowingly secured a last-minute prime spot at the front of New York Citys Pride parade leading Grauwiler and the others to pull an all-nighter spray-painting banners demanding stricter gun control measures.

Like Grauwiler, Iraq war veteran and DC political consultant Jason Lindsay immediately started forming his own anti-gun campaign group on 12 June. While Gag is visceral and direct, Lindsays Pride Fund to End Gun Violence is taking a considered and targeted lobbying approach to help gay people and their allies elect candidates who will act on sensible gun policy reforms while championing LGBTQ safety and equality.

I was shocked to my stomach when I saw it on the news, Lindsay said from Dupont Circle, DCs historically gay but now yuppified neighbourhood. At the same time, it was just another example of the senseless epidemic of gun violence. But this was different in scale and it was incredibly personal for me, as it was an attack on my community.

Lindsay came out in rural North Carolina when he was 15, but he only felt comfortable telling his mother, and kept his life and feelings very private. The intense privacy would continue for years. At 18, he signed up as an army reservist serving for 14 years including a tour of Iraq in 2003 when the Dont Ask Dont Tell policy was still in force. I didnt tell anyone all of that time and no one found out, he said.

Hes less private now. Today he is leading a campaign on one of the most contentious issues in America, as a gay man with hundreds of LGBTQ supporters. Why do I think gays can change this? he asked. The gay community, and its allies, are an incredible force. These are people in high-powered positions across all walks of life. And we have won battles before. People thought marriage equality would never happen, thought that Dont Ask Dont Tell would never be repealed, he said. This is a new fight for the gay community, adding our incredible strength and political experience to the existing campaigns, and that will make a difference.

Lindsay is uniquely placed to take on this fight as a gay man working in politics who has fired military assault rifles similar to those used by the Pulse killer. These are weapons of war and have no place on American streets, he said. People in the military have to undergo enhanced safety training before using a gun like that. But in the civilian world, you can go into a store and take away a gun with no training.

Lindsay said the public are already onboard, but lawmakers are lagging behind public opinion because of their reliance on donations and support from the gun lobby and the NRA. Political polling since the Pulse shooting has consistently shown 90% of Americans support stricter background checks and 85% want to block suspected terrorists on the no-fly list from buying weapons.

The NRA, said Lindsay, is trying to distort the aim of the campaign. They are playing the fear factor, saying we want to take away peoples guns and repeal the second amendment [the right to bear arms]. We dont want to take away anyones guns.

In fact, many of Pride Funds board own guns and enjoy hunting or days at the shooting range. All we are advocating for is a review of assault weapon sales and access to high-capacity magazines. No one needs them, he said. They are designed to kill as many people as quickly as possible.

Barbara Poma the owner of Pulse, who created the club as a place welcoming anyone and everyone in memory of her gay brother John who died of Aids-related complications in 1991 carries, and her husband and son own, several firearms. She said the attack, which claimed the lives of several of her friends, hasnt changed her support of the second amendment. My life changed forever that night, all of our lives changed. But it hasnt changed my point of view on guns. The right to bear arms is a fundamental part of being American.

Patty Sheehan, who also serves on the Pride Fund board, has a handgun she bought after being threatened because of her sexuality and for campaigning for equality. Shes not going to give up her gun either, but vowed to continue to demand a ban on assault weapons even if it costs her job. She fears that when she comes up for re-election later this year the NRA which pumped millions of dollars into Trumps campaign will deploy its vast war chest against her. I am scared, I know it might cost me my job, but if I dont stand up and protect my community I cant do my job.

Sheehan, who is single and has devoted her life to public service, Loui and her urban chickens, said: Everything I do as an elected public official doesnt matter if its all shattered by gun violence. These kids at Pulse didnt sign up for the military, they went out to dance and got shot.