Have you ever noticed that when something gets popular, suddenly everyone wants a piece of it? You turn on the television and see some new music sensation or breakout movie star posing for cameras or some trend suddenly flip the switch in people’s heads that makes them think, maybe if I’m a part of it, I’ll be cool and hip.

That’s how it’s starting to feel with Pride month, currently celebrated in June, where members of the LGBT community come together and celebrate their differences in a world that often demands sameness and conformity. Once seen as an exhibit of debauchery by polite society, politicians and corporations are suddenly tasting the rainbow and deciding they want to influence the other Skittles.

While support and seeking out allies has always been important in the mission to make people realize that lesbians, gay men, transgendered people and other people who don’t fit into the narrow confines of masculinity and femininity are not plagues to be wiped out, it’s important to make sure those allies aren’t going to turn around and make the cause all about them

Take the Republican Party, for example. A tweet recently put out by GOP National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel stated, “@GOP is proud to have doubled our LGBTQ support over the last 4 years, and we will continue to grow our big tent by supporting measures that promote fairness and balance protections for LGBTQ Americans and those with deeply held religious beliefs.”

Translation: Republicans love you gay boys and transgender whatever-you-ares, but shhhh, don’t tell the evangelicals. We’ve got to make certain they’re happy because they’ve supposedly got God in their corner, and those bigots have sway.

This is also while a bunch of states, Wisconsin among them, are trying to push through anti-transgender bills. This is also while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed money for LGBTQ programs, including mental health services for the survivors of the Pulse nightclub massacre that happened five years ago. This is also while Republican legislators are freaking out because librarians are bringing in drag queens to read to children.

Yet the GOP wants us to believe they’ve seen the error of their ways and broadened their color spectrum to include all shades of the rainbow. Sorry, not buying it.

Neither is Chasten Buttigieg, the husband of current Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. He tweeted back against McDaniel, saying, “Those with ‘deeply held religious beliefs’ are often the parents who force their LGBTQ children out of the home and onto the street. “I’ve met with those kids. 40% of homeless youth in this country are LGBTQ. Re-visit your party’s platform before you open your mouth about #Pride.”

Now, before you proclaim that this opinion is sponsored by the Democrats, let me make it clear that I don’t have much love for that band of folks, either. While they’ve played the “We love the gays” game longer than Republicans and have a better track record, there’s also a tendency for some in the herd of donkeys to publicly show support and then privately say, “What a bunch of freaks.”

To me, individual support is what counts. When individual people are able to say, “I stand with you,” without peppering those words with a party platform or a pre-set pack of political talking points, that’s when I can believe you support my right to exist, even though some of the things I might do don’t strike your fancy.

However, it’s not just the politicians who want to be part of the club. A fellow author posted a meme on Facebook that reminded me that corporations and big businesses want to capitalize on our pride, as well. “Pride isn’t brought to you by T-Mobile and Absolut Vodka. It was brought to you by drag queens, trans women throwing bricks. By lesbians and queer women taking care of gay men dying of AIDS in the face of an intentional government neglect.”

The meme makes an interesting point about how corporations are willing to provide drinks and swag at Pride festivals, but the motive is not about peaceful co-existence. It’s about fat cats finally realizing that queers discovered this newfangled thing called currency, and they want you to spend it with them. Once again, not buying it, and this time I mean literally.

CEOs who want to be seen as true supporters of LGBTQ people should put their money to more constructive use year-round, not just in June. With DeSantis stripping public funding for LGBTQ organizations in Florida, corporations can step in and fund those programs themselves. Executives can testify against bills that allow for discrimination against same-sex couples. They can pay for constructing shelters for homeless youth, whether they’re LGBTQ or not.

Banding together is what has made Pride grow into what it is today. Still, we should make sure we’re on the same page in that Pride is about peaceful coexistence and not polling numbers and piña coladas.