The Meanings of Lesbian and Gay Pride Day: Resistance through Consumption and Resistance to Consumption

Lesbian and Gay Pride Day (LGPD) is investigated as a collective ritual of consumer resistance. Over the period of four years, five LGPD festivals were attended and participant observed. Furthermore, to provide a more in-depth perspective on the meanings of this celebration for consumers, forty-four gay men were interviewed about the festival. Emergent findings reveal the festival as a carnivalesque celebration of excess, a construction of authenticity, and a contested commercialized experience. Overall, we interpret LGPD as a complex, multilayered form of consumption-related cultural resistance that raises awareness of social injustice and discursively informs social meanings in everyday life outside the festival.