As someone who lives a queer non-binary (he/she) existence throughout the year, Delhi-based fashion consultant Daniel Franklin, 32, finds it annoying that brands resorting to marketing campaigns that ride on the Pride month flavour are routine. “My existence is not a trend for others to emulate; it is me unlearning the gendered conditioning of my childhood. It is about breaking free and having fun with fashion.”

Another Pride season is upon us, with companies chasing “rainbows” to show faux solidarity with the LGBTQiA+ movement. Gay beer, anyone? The merch 
often screams tacky; some kind of straight derivative of the rainbow hues or carefully calibrated couching of #LoveisLove, and much of it rarely links with other social transformations. This mainstreaming of the rainbow aesthetic as woke material acceptance is known among the queer as rainbow capitalism or rainbow-washing.