Willie Nelson’s gay Valentine song has warmed many a Brokeback lover’s heart. His tribute to gay cowboy love is one of a few indicators that LGBTQ relationships and issues are in the viewfinder, even if only during this film’s craze. This brings to question though, how much LGBTQ people are willing to become commodities? Why are organizations like GLAAD so damn happy to have a gay cowboy Valentine anthem? The goal for equality has clouded GLAAD’s judgments. Valentine’s Day reinforces heterosexual relationships through acts of consumerism, so do LGBTQ folk want to call this holiday their own too?

Two weeks ago, the Village Voice ran an ad for chest surgery specifically targeting transgender female-to-males. Plastic surgeons who are sensitive to the issues of being FTM are few and far between. Not that these ads assure high quality caring professionals, but only a few years ago, few doctors would perform this elective surgery. Then why am I so ill at ease about this ad? Is the only way the medical profession will pay attention to trans issues when there’s a dollar to be made from them?

Now more so than ever, ads are targeting the “gay demographic.” The gay pride parade is now basically a series of corporate billboards on the back of floats advertising companies that would likely not give a crap about LGBTQ presence if they didn’t see green. The larger question is that if the amount of goods being sold to queers (through targeted advertising and marketing) is disproportionate to the amount of representation queers have in mainstream media, how are LGBTQ identities being affirmed?