In Western countries, ‘mainstream’ pride faces criticism for being homonormative, homonationalistic and homocapitalistic, removed from LGBT+ politics, emphasising ‘fun’ and celebratory atmosphere rather than ‘issues’ experienced by our communities. Organisational involvement in Pride has been labelled as pinkwashing, largely because of the use of superficial messaging to the LGBT+ community that fails to engage with and address inequalities faced by queer communities. However, in more queer hostile contexts, including Central and Eastern Europe, organisational involvement can provide a valued economical and political support for LGBT+ organisations. In these contexts specifically, pride events could serve as a tool and a platform for democratic involvement of queer workers - they do not only support queer workers rights but also the political goals of the queer community.
Drawing on 20 semi-structured interviews with leaders and members of ten LGBT+ employee networks operating in multinational companies in Poland, often referred to as 'insider activists', the paper explores their participation in Pride and its democratising implications. Most interviewees rejected the pinkwashing argument outright and framed network participation in pride as an ‘achievement’ for (and of) LGBT+ employees and a sign democratisation at their workplace in a queer-hostile context. In fact, network participation in pride was expected and, as such, not-problematised as a network goal. For professionals often working from home or in a hybrid mode, attending pride was an opportunity to meet other employees in person, have fun together, and improve visibility of the network and the company. Pride participation coexisted alongside more internal work undertaken by networks such as influencing organisational policies or awareness raising. However, some interviewees, criticised not only pride itself, but also networks in general, for being co-opted and commodified by companies largely for marketing purposes.
