This article first appeared on the Buckeye Flame
The staff of The Buckeye Flame arrived at one of Ohio’s largest Pride celebrations in 2024 to find our table sandwiched between a cellphone company and a grocery-store chain.
To our left, the cellphone company was giving out gift cards and T-shirts. To our right, the grocery store chain was giving out high-quality tote bags and industrial strength carabiners. The enthusiastic staffers, with Chappell Roan blaring behind them, beckoned Pride-goers over to their tables to grab their free stuff.
All throughout the day, people would come to our table straight from one of our corporate neighbors, totes open and at the ready.
“What do you have?” people would demand, truly without salutation or preamble.
Our retorts of, “The truth!” or “Queer journalism!” never went over well.
So we would point to the fishbowl of rubber bracelets, people would take one and immediately walk off to the next stop on their gay trick-or-treating experience.