They're getting harassed, you know? They've had death threats on social media and really feeling very personally attacked. And also, we're seeing the targeting of some of the marketing personnel who've been involved with these campaigns - those people getting doxxed. What's really troubling me about what's happening more recently is violence directed towards, you know, in the case of Target, their employees. And I think people's right to boycott, you know - whatever political place you are on the spectrum, boycotts are a fine way of exercising your democratic and consumer rights. So companies are really worried that they're going to alienate this, you know, huge market - particularly in terms of younger consumers. What's really shifted is that boycotts now are much more active from LGBTQ consumers and their allies. So early on, national companies were very worried about religious right boycotts as really kind of affecting their bottom line. SENDER: The tradition has really been consumer boycotts. RASCOE: Was there always a backlash to any of these types of campaigns? So I think that there's this sort of reciprocal effect that as companies become more LGBTQ-friendly, then similarly we're seeing some kind of political change as well. SENDER: I mean, obviously, their bottom line is to make money - though we have seen some really significant progress, I think, in LGBTQ visibility partly through the ways in which companies have courted LGBTQ consumers. RASCOE: These companies where they're doing these campaigns - the bottom line is that they want to make money, right? They're trying to attract customers. What's really changed is that now there's almost an imperative for marketers and companies to signal during June that they are in solidarity with and supportive of LGBTQ communities and particularly really want to court LGBTQ consumers and their allies. Initially, corporations were interested in targeting gay and lesbian consumers, as they were thought of then, through things like booths at Pride events, maybe having a float or something like that, and then thinking that they could kind of fly under the radar and not get any kind of right-wing backlash in doing that. SENDER: Well, I think we've seen a development for the last - well, really, since the '90s.

RASCOE: What do corporate Pride campaigns look like, and why do companies do these campaigns in the first place? Katherine Sender is a professor of media and sexuality in the communication department at Cornell University, and she joins us now. And some Bud Light consumers boycotted the beer after the brand partnered with trans actress Dylan Mulvaney in a recent campaign. Target announced that it will be removing some of its Pride Month products after receiving backlash against the items and threats against its workers. But some companies are pulling back from that effort. They have advertising campaigns, Pride-logoed products and maybe partnerships with queer influencers. June is LGBTQ Pride Month, and some businesses want in on the event and the market.

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