On June 1, 2025, Google unveiled a bright, playful Doodle honoring the hyperpop music genre, celebrating the creativity and digital energy of LGBTQ+ artists who pioneered it. At first glance, the Doodle, vibrant and glitchy, seems like a fitting tribute to the start of Pride Month. But for some LGBTQ+ advocates, the image hides an uncomfortable truth: Google’s broader retreat from actively supporting queer communities.
With its pulsing synths and DIY ethos, hyperpop has transformed into a haven and a playground for LGBTQ+ artists, many of whom challenge the boundaries of identity, gender, and performance. Google’s Doodle cleverly nods to this cultural significance, featuring visual cues like stylized DAWs (digital audio workstations), rainbow-hued animations, and the distorted, exuberant aesthetic typical of the genre. It’s a joyful snapshot of a queer cultural moment that has grown beyond underground circles into the mainstream.
But while Google’s homepage is celebrating Pride, many LGBTQ+ employees and allies feel the Doodle is more of a veneer than a true reflection of corporate values. In mid-2024, Google quietly removed Pride Month, alongside other cultural and heritage observances like Black History Month and Indigenous Peoples Month, from its Calendar app. The move, the company claimed, was meant to “reduce manual work for a global user base,” but many see it as a troubling sign of caving to bigoted pressure.
“Sure, the Doodle is beautiful,” said one queer Google employee, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation. “But when you take away structural support, like acknowledging our holidays and milestones, it sends a clear message: our pride is just convenient marketing for them.”
This change is part of a broader pullback from diversity-focused initiatives that Google once championed. Last year, the company’s 50th anniversary Pride Doodle, a sweeping slideshow honoring LGBTQ+ history, was widely praised for its inclusivity and depth. But since then, Google has been criticized for rolling back diversity programs and sponsorships of LGBTQ+ events.
Meanwhile, some external pressure groups, many of them aligned with far-right political movements, have aggressively lobbied major tech companies to back away from what they label “identity politics.” Google’s recent actions, including removing community observances from the Calendar app, have sparked accusations that the company is bending to these reactionary voices.
For many in the queer community, this tension between glossy visibility and quiet erasure is painfully familiar. Pride, they argue, is about more than a single day’s Doodle, it’s about structural support and a refusal to back down in the face of bigotry.
“Pride is not just a party,” said a spokesperson from the LGBTQ+ tech advocacy group Out in Tech. “It’s a declaration of our existence and our rights. If companies like Google are going to publicly celebrate Pride with a colorful Doodle, they need to make sure that support is real and not just rainbow-washed PR.”
As Pride Month unfolds, eyes are on Google to see if its homepage Doodle is just window dressing—or if the company will step up to actively support the community it claims to celebrate.
