While I will be publishing a more comprehensive article on the matter this weekend I took some time during a live stream to explain what the focus for this publication would be this month. June is of course Pride Month where people come together to celebrate the diversity and history of the LGBT community. During this time you will also notice corporations use this month to attempt to increase revenue by a show of empty, vapid pandering in the regions where the LGBT are championed and not so much in the regions they are persecuted. This is a topic I’ve spoken about at length down the years and fortunately the LGBT community has got wise to the bullshit. We all notice the companies that change their US based socials to feature rainbow decorations while not doing the same, for example, with their Saudi Arabian ones. It is a widespread form of cowardice that would be tolerable were it not for all the moral grandstanding in June, fighting easily winnable battles on home soil but refusing to engage with conflicts where it might cost them partners and profits.
Like all bad things this has of course come to esports. Recently it was announced that thirty esports organisations would start taking a stipend from the Saudi Arabian PIF owned Esports World Cup in order to expand their operations. This would feature some of the most theoretically successful esports organisations in the world because what this industry needs is yet more bail outs for failed businesses. Many of those organisations raised money and gained popularity prior to the Saudi state takeover of the industry by being vocal about diversity and inclusion for markerting purposes. Now when those principles have been tested not by coercion, not by aggression, but simply by putting a bag of money on a table and asking if they would like some, they have surrendered those values to become business partners with one of the world’s worst human rights abusers.
I don’t understand how anyone can call something a “core value” and yet sell it for something as tawdry as money. However that is the normalised attitude in esports and has been for some time. Everything is for sale just so long as it enables the carnival for the incompetent c-suites to continue playing out their sports team owner fantasies. In making these business decisions they have, in my view at least, shown that they do not care about the causes they claim to champion and have turned esports into a worse place for those who may already feel unwelcome. They have normalised a form of bigotry that I grew up around decades ago, the sentiment that says “just be less of who you are around those who would hurt you for it and everything will be OK.”
Of course that won’t stop them double-dipping. They will promote LGBT causes in June and then they will be active participants in Saudi sportswashing in July. This, in case you haven’t already got it, should explain the name. It will be Pride before a fall, a fall in principles, in leadership and in ethics. This month I will do all I can to help highlight it because it’s important you notice it and stop supporting faux allies that abandon you the second they receive financial reimbursement for doing so.
I spent May contacting sponsors that may or may not be aware of the deal with the EWC and other entities and essentyially asked them a simple question: “How do you reconcile support for LGBT causes and sponsorship of a business that is now at the very least partially funded by the Saudi Arabian state?” Over June I will be publishing responses for each organisation. I will also be highlighting the disparity between words and actions as their inevtiable cascade of rainbows comes tumbling across my timeline. You can have the money but you don’t get to pretend you are something you’re not.
I hope you will read and share this content across June and help me highlight this issue.
Operation Pride-Before-A-Fall Video Explainer