It wasn't that long ago that banks and companies would refuse to serve gay people. People are going all the way up to the Supreme Court to enshrine the right not to serve LGBTQ people in their business. Rainbow capitalism showed which companies were safe to do business with and it pressured other companies to do the same.

Likewise, companies did and do try to discrominate against LGBTQ employees. Rainbow capitalism let employees be open about their identities and feel safe. The 50 year old gay man marching with Bank of America may have hidden his sexuality for decades because it wasn't safe to come out at work.

It helped set top down societal values and norms that LGBTQ people are a welcome part of society.

It pressured companies to adopt nondiscrimination policies and DEI policies.

It made companies donate to pride celebrations and LGBTQ causes.

with mixed success, it provided powerful and visible allies for political change, like the Respect for Marriage Act. Businesses pulled out of North Carolina and forced it to go back on a bathroom bill.

The drawdown of rainbow capitalism has real consequences. Pride celebrations losing corporate sponsorships means they are not able to hold those celebrations. DEI programs are being rolled back. Companies are buying less from queer owned businesses. Support for gay marriage is actually decreasing in polls.

Are these all cause and effect? No. Is it sometimes just a lagging indicator? Yeah. Are fair weather allies like big corps really not great? Yeah.

support for same-sex marriage is down among Republicans in the US. it's steady among Democrats and Independents. that pulls the average down, but it doesn't mean most people are against the idea

BUT

Loyalty (1869)

— by Briton Rivière

Loyalty (2025)

"The funniest possible outcome of the AI mandate era is about to be HR departments discovering that 'sincerely held religious belief' under Title VII has a much lower bar than they assumed, and Pope Leo handed every Catholic employee a written excuse," wrote Corey Quinn, a software-startup founder in San Francisco, on X.

Employers could wind up in court if they outright dismiss workers who request a faith-based exemption from using AI, said Ashley Herd, a former McKinsey counsel and head of North American HR who now advises managers and employers on workplace issues.

He just widens his eyes, makes them a bit glassy and Ilya folds like a damn chair.

After a while Ilya figures out what he’s doing and screws his eyes shut to avoid looking at Shane.

Ilya: no Shane no I know what you’re doing, put your eyes away. You will not use your wicked spells on me today

Shane: Ilya will you just look at me please

which means maybe the centaurs have picked up on the fact that hey, sometimes when shane wants ilya to stop doing something, he taps his arm twice. or if ilya wants shane to move one way, he taps him three times. or if he just wants his attention, its a squeeze. which is all relatively normal, and they probably think its cute that they have an unspoken language for communicating with one another.

It's a game between the two of them. This is their version of that game where everyone has to yell sex louder than the last person until one chickens out.

Shane has hopped onto Ilya's back like a backpack and has Buried his nose behind Ilya's jaw, waiting for someone to finally suggest that maybe there's a line to physical affection at the rink, but then Ilya casually mentions how he was afraid to even have photos of Shane on his phone 🥺 and now the team feels too sad to say anything for at least 24 hours.

“No,” his foster dad snaps. “It was already enough of an inconvenience bringing you here.”

no thoughts, just a six-year-old Andrew Minyard shrinking back into himself as tears sting in his eyes. A six-year-old Andrew Minyard learning not to want things.

no thoughts, just a twenty-year-old Nicky Hemmick leaving the doctor’s office with Andrew who probably has strep throat, but wouldn’t let the doctor get close enough to check. Drained from the day, Nicky stops at the McDonald’s drive thru and asks Andrew what he wants. Andrew snaps that he isn’t hungry. Nicky decides to buy him a Happy Meal as a way of avoiding food waste if Andrew truly isn’t hungry, but also so Andrew has something to eat if he actually is hungry.