For the second June in a row, the face of Santa Barbara’s airport is draped with an LGBTQ+ pride banner reflecting the partnership recently struck between the airport administration and Santa Barbara’s Pacific Pride Foundation. June also happens to be Pride Month. “Fly with Pride and Land with Love,” the banner reads with rainbow-colored hearts above and below the white text.
Not all airports express support for gay rights in pride month, but many do, part of a phenomenon sometimes described as “rainbow capitalism.” What sparked Santa Barbara’s airport to get into the act? “It’s Santa Barbara. Paths cross,” explained marketing director and spokesperson Lauren Gonzales. The airport, she added, is reaching out more, seeking community nonprofits with which to partner. The zoo and MOXI are two that come to mind. Banners are flown for the International Film Festival and for Old Spanish Days as well.
This week, there will be a pop-up mini pride event inside the airport.
Alaska Airlines, which flies direct from Santa Barbara to Seattle, Portland, and San Diego, is offering early seating to passengers wearing pride colors. How early? Gonzales wasn’t sure. Just sooner. Alaska Airlines, headquartered in Seattle, has been outspokenly supportive of LGBTQ+ concerns since 2016, when the airline’s marketing first expressed support for the Stonewall rioters of 1969.
Despite strong financial support for pride events, the airline got into hot water in 2018 when two gay passengers were asked to give up premium seats to make room for a heterosexual couple. Three years ago, the ACLU took up the cause of a transgender Alaksa Airlines flight attendant who objected that the binary choice of uniforms the company offered was discriminatory. The ACLU prevailed.
Not all communities are welcoming when it comes to pride events. Two years ago, negative reaction to some rainbow flags in downtown Solvang elicited backlash by some city councilmembers, which in turn triggered a letter of rebuke from the mayor of Copenhagen.
