Contested Representation

Since the LGBTQ employee groups under study were primarily comprised of middle- and upper-class professionals in corporate America and were responsible for representing LGBTQ identities to their employers, working-class LGBTQ voices were often un- or underrepresented in the workplace movement. Building onto that bias, corporate marketing teams promoted a profile of the LGBTQ community as an untapped well of consumer spending and quick to develop brand loyalty. The seeds of Rainbow Capitalism were sown. 

By reimagining the LGBTQ community on the basis of its ability to consume, poor and working-class LGBTQ people received less positive attention and visibility from corporations than more affluent LGBTQ people. Although advertising to LGBTQ people helped legitimize their identities, activist Urvashi Vaid has argued that the consumer-based approach to LGBTQ legitimization fragmented the LGBTQ community by addressing it through market niches, rather than shared interests.

Vaid, "Money and the Movement, or Looking for Mr. Geffen," Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation.