Awareness of What Our Purchasing Dollars Support

There is a hard truth about our USAmerican culture: our commerce and our politics are deeply entwined. The products we purchase contribute to the politicians and policies that impact our lives. We usually become most aware of this when a specific corporate act leads to a general call for a boycott. Such refusals to consume from a particular company or brand do have impacts, but they are not particularly lasting, being more about headlines than actual material consequence.

The harder path is to be continually aware of how our purchases contribute to policies and politics. We get it; that is difficult on many fronts. First, just knowing who and what the businesses we use support isn’t easy. Most corporations play a both-sides game, making sure that they can indicate their support for any candidate or party when they need a policy to lean their way. Moreover, most companies of any size support the politics that privileges a freer market and reduces regulations and responsibilities for consequences of their commerce (what economists call “externalities”). Finally, depending on where we live and the amount of money we can spend, we might not have access to a diversity of options. 

Even so, it’s better to know than to not know. A queer perspective grants that there are more options than just a binary; the world is made of more shades of grey (as well as a fabulous spectrum of colors!) than just black and white. Any effort we can make to control how our consumption influences policies that impact our lives is a good thing. 

To that end, we here at Isn’t it Queer want to recommend the website and app, Goods Unite Us. The research at this site is pretty solid, mapping the donations that companies and their chief leaders make to political parties and candidates. The site allows you to identify your political affiliation, describe the companies you buy from most often, and then assess how your purchases are supporting your politics. It is, well, eye-opening. 😳

The downside of this resource is that, currently, it does not detail corporate support for diversity and identity issues. Users can learn about the amount of money a company offers a party that usually promotes homophobic and transphobic policies (i.e. Republicans). However, that is not to say that companies that supports other parties are necessarily advocates for LGBTQ+ rights. There are other resources that provide some insights into these concerns, for example:

• HRC Business Coalition for Equality
• GLAAD Corporations in Support of LGBTQ+ Equality
• The National LGBT Chamber of Commerce
• Full List of Companies Supporting DEI Efforts 
• 46 Companies Sticking with DEI [2025]

Another hard truth: this is all a wildly shifting target. Companies that we used to trust to stand up for diversity and LGBTQ+ acceptance are quietly changing their policies in response to the shifting political climate. If we care about what our spending dollars will support, we will have to remain vigilant on this ever-morphing terrain. 

What isn’t changing is this: our politics, our activism, our ideology are all deeply tied to our material conditions. Advocacy without connection to a material base cannot change our world or our lives. Monetary value and moral values are deeply entwined. Difficult though daily consumption decisions may be (and they are never “pure” in a capitalist state), denial of their consequences is not going to help. 

Be aware; choose wisely.