I have been thinking a lot about boycotts this year because they seem to me to have taken on a new dimension here in 2023. And as we say goodbye to another Pride month, the efforts at boycotts based on conservative anger at “woke” corporate identification has taken up a lot of space in the media of late.

If someone had asked you about boycotts this time last year, you would have probably thought of the boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics, the anti-Apartheid campaign throughout the second half of the last century, or maybe even the Montgomery Bus Boycott from the 1950s. Now the news is filled with stories calling for the boycott of various American companies because of their support for the LGBTQ community and Pride.

Boycotts have a long history in various communities’ efforts to bring about social change through economic pressure. And as you will no doubt agree, some of those campaigns gained a great deal of attention – some even brought about social change. Others never caught on, died away, and were forgotten. Read more