Detecting Corporate LGBTQ+ Backlash: The Rise of 'Rainbow Washing' Concerns

Using social listening to detect LGBTQ+ backlash directed toward corporate pride events

LGBTQ+ communities in the United States have seen unprecedented expansions of freedom and rights, along with increased visibility from corporations in the last decade. Although some corporations like Levi’s and American Airlines have been long-standing supporters of LGBT causes, other industries, like financial services or the defense industrial complex, recently began using LGBTQ+ vocabulary within their corporate marketing.

LGBTQ+ folks have pushed against much of this corporate outreach and have accused companies of “rainbow washing” or marketing their products or services using the language of the LGBTQ+ community without actually supporting the community or its causes. This pushback grew to a peak in 2023, with considerable conservative pushback against LGBTQ+ communities (topics we’ve written extensively about in the past, like retractions against Gender Affirming Care). Conversations around “rainbow washing” surged with 2023’s Pride Month, suggesting that corporations have alienated the audiences they sought to support by appeasing conservative activists.

2023’s huge backlash

First, let's examine the underlying post volume and topics social media users use when discussing rainbow washing.

Using social listening to detect LGBTQ+ backlash directed toward corporate pride events

Let's first look at the underlying post volume of conversions mentioning "rainbow washing." This chart shows us two key patterns: a periodic rise around the last five years during Pride (month of June) with an enormous spike around 2023's Pride celebrations. We usually see these periodic increases with seasonal events like the Superbowl, Easter, or Election Day. It makes sense that "rainbow washing" surges during Pride - this is where corporations' pro-LGBTQ+ positioning is most visible. Secondly, we see a massive spike, specifically around June 2023 Pride - let's dive into that and look at the topics that flow to the front.

Figure 1: Post volume related to “rainbow washing” (June 2019 through June 2024); Infegy Social Dataset.

Negative topics

Now that we've looked at the post volume, let's dive into the underlying topics people use when discussing "rainbow washing." Infegy IQ, our custom-built artificial intelligence content analysis engine, isolates topics (important nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs) that appear frequently within a potentially massive collection of social media posts. We detected that "rainbow washing" was universally negative, specifically topics like "companies" and "corporations," attracting much of the underlying blame. The phrase “basically hung” reflects a viral tweet within the conversation where an activist mentioned how LGBTQ+ folks were “basically hung out to dry.” Next, let's look at the underlying companies social media users talk about within the context of "rainbow washing."

Figure 2: Topics related to “rainbow washing” (June 2019 through June 2024); Infegy Social Dataset.

Companies most mentioned

Our natural language processing algorithms don’t stop at sentiment detection and topic isolation. Using Infegy IQ, we can conduct Named Entity Recognition or isolate proper nouns (people, places, things, or, in our case, corporations). Named Entity Recognition can be highly useful when looking at unstructured text, as good entity detection picks up topic matches even if you’re query doesn’t overtly mention them (i.e., a search for the entity “Apple” will pick up all AirPods-related content even if you don’t mention AirPods specifically.

Entity detection clues us into the corporation's social media users blame most for “rainbow washing.” Disney comes out at the top of the list. Disney is emerging from a high-profile battle with Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, where Disney sued DeSantis for Florida’s new controversial parental rights bill. Despite Disney’s advocacy, many social media users called their advocacy a happenstance alignment rather than true allyship, as their response took much longer than activists had hoped.

In addition to Disney, we also see Target. Target took a lot of heat in 2023 to retract its Pride collection in the face of conservative opposition. LGBTQ+ social media users saw that as surrendering advocacy in the face of opposition.

Figure 3: Top Entities pertaining to “rainbow washing” (June 2019 through June 2024); Infegy Social Dataset.

Criticism coming from the LGBTQ+ community

Now that we’ve examined the content of “rainbow washing,” let’s examine the demographics of those who use the term.

Source bio topics

When analyzing an audience, the best place to start is how they describe themselves. To do that, we use the same topic analysis as before applied to their account source bios. Source bios refer to the self-inputted descriptive text underneath a handle. Figure 4 shows a highly LGBTQ+-focused (Trans, lesbian, Nonbinary, pronouns), left-leaning (Palestine, politics) audience. You’ll note a complete absence of any conservative viewpoints. That tells us the underlying audience is highly concentrated within the community and that these corporations have alienated some of the communities they were attempting to support.

Figure 4: Aggregated source bio topics around “rainbow washing” (June 2019 through June 2024); Infegy Social Dataset.

Gender demographics

While source bios help give us contextual information, we use our gender demographic tools for a more concrete number. We detect gender from pronouns mentioned in social posts and source bios. We detected a 5% non-binary percentage, the highest percentage I’ve seen thus far in years of social listening research. That suggests people who talk about “rainbow washing” are much more likely to be in the LGBTQ+ community versus the average social media user (non-binary percentages typically hover at ~05%).

Figure 5: Linked hashtags showing deeper medical specialty communities conversations (May 2021 through May 2024); Infegy Social Dataset.

Emotional and brand damage

After looking at the demographics of the people talking about "rainbow washing," let's examine their emotions. Emotional analysis can be helpful when detecting brand damage (it's a key indicator for our new Brand Risk Dashboard).

Emotional overlap

Let's use a Chord Chart, a new visualization offered in Infegy Starscape, to visualize emotions. Chord charts are a mix between force graphs and pie charts. Figure 6 shows that negative emotions (Anger, Disgust, Hate, and Fear) make up a majority of the conversation "rainbow washing" from the LGBTQ+ community. Interestingly, we see intersections between Anger and Anticipation and between Anger and Surprise, telling us that the profoundly adverse reaction toward 2023's brand retractions was both passionate and unexpected.

Figure 6: Chord chart showing related emotions about "rainbow washing" (June 2019 through June 2024); Infegy Social Dataset.

Detecting business risk

With those negative emotions come profound business risks. We used a radar chart to show the distributions of the top themes in the context of rainbow washing. Figure 7 shows almost every theme you don't want to see if you're a brand strategist, specifically high levels of intent->churn (people talking about canceling purchases) and risk->criminal (people using crime-related keywords). These themes suggest real brand risk for the underlying companies mentioned above.

Figure 7: Radar chart showing top themes relating to “rainbow washing” (June 2019 through June 2024); Infegy Social Dataset.

Takeaways for your brand

Our analysis reveals a significant increase in social media conversations about "rainbow washing" during the 2023 Pride Month, highlighting a disconnect between corporate intentions and community perceptions. This reaction indicates a broader trend of disillusionment and skepticism towards corporate Pride initiatives, presenting a notable business risk. Brands must reassess their strategies to ensure genuine support for the LGBTQ+ community, rather than superficial engagement, to mitigate potential damage and foster authentic connections.

LGBTQ+ Corporate Pride Backlash: Key Insights

Social media analysis reveals growing discontent with "rainbow washing," as corporations face backlash during 2023 Pride Month.

Understanding Rainbow Washing Trends

Explore the surge in conversations around "rainbow washing," peaking during June 2023, with criticism aimed at companies like Disney and Target.

LGBTQ+ Community Pushback

Predominantly LGBTQ+ voices drive the conversation, underscoring a disconnect between corporate intentions and community expectations.

Emotional Impact and Brand Risk

Negative emotions dominate discussions on "rainbow washing," signaling business risks for perceived inauthentic corporate support.

Strategies for Authentic Engagement

Brands must prioritize genuine LGBTQ+ support to mitigate risks and build trust, moving beyond superficial Pride initiatives.