Unlike a lot of brands this month, we haven’t changed our logo to a rainbow version in celebration of Pride month.
As an LGBT person and CEO I have conflicting feelings about what might be perceived as the corporate takeover of Pride. The last time I went to the NYC pride parade it seemed to be mostly floats sponsored by cell phone carriers. In 2019 and after years of more tepid support, it is hard for me to see these companies as taking a brave stand rather than being bandwagon allies of a group of people who have suffered from marginalization for so long.
On the other hand, as my friend Michael Segal put it recently — there are still a lot of kids walking around with big secrets inside of them, and the fact that one cannot escape red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple flags in the month of June must provide some comfort to those kids, even if those flags are bought and paid for by some corporate behemoth’s focus-grouped and demographically-optimized marketing spend.
And so as leader of Getaway I remain conflicted about how to best celebrate Pride month — I don’t want to take advantage of a hard won identity for company gain, but I also don’t want to imply that visibility isn’t important.
One thing I am proud of: we have built a space where you can go, and you can be comfortable, and you can be yourself. No matter what you look like, or who you are with, your Getaway is for you and for you only. In a world that is thankfully becoming more and more tolerant in many places, most of us still need a place to fully escape once in a while. I am proud that we have heard from so many that we are that place to them.
Happy pride,
Jon