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TripAdvisor Is Latest Company To Denounce Boston 'Straight Pride' Parade, Threaten Legal Action

BOSTON (CBS/CNN) – TripAdvisor sent the organizers of Boston's upcoming "Straight Pride" parade a cease-and-desist letter on Friday.

The Needham-based travel website said organizers claimed they're in negotiations with the company as a potential sponsor.

TripAdvisor said that's not the case and in a letter using song titles popular with the LGBTQ community ordered the parade to stop using their logo and trademark in advertising.

"There is nothing Vogue or acceptable about making false claims about others merely to support your own cause," a TripAdvisor lawyer wrote to the "Super Happy Fun America" group. "If I Could Turn Back Time, I would tell you not to use our name in the first place."

Lyft, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Tumblr, Gillette and Netflix are among the other companies who have rejected sponsorship offers.

Netflix said the Straight Pride Parade "is about hate — not pride."

"You should know that we're unafraid of bullies," Netflix wrote in an email to the group Tuesday. "Our legal department is here, it's queer, and it's telling you to steer clear."

Netflix called the inclusion of the Netflix logo on the organizers' site "gross and deeply hurtful," as well as "deceptive misinformation." The company said it would consider further legal action if the organizers did not immediately remove the company's name and logo within 24 hours. Netflix's logo is still on the organizers' website, but it's now crossed out.

"Netflix has nothing to do with your organization or event. Indeed, it's telling that you feel the need to lie to gain legitimacy," Netflix's IP department wrote in the email.

One of the organizers, John Hugo, a former Republican Congressional candidate for Massachusetts, told CNN Business, "We are appalled at the hateful and bigoted email issued by Netflix. By their highly irresponsible statements they effectively demonstrate the serious need for our civil rights movement."

"We believed that they would jump at the opportunity to become involved...it appears that their legal department is staffed by gay supremacists," the organizers wrote on their site.

The controversial parade is planned for August.

(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. CNN's Shannon Liao contributed to this report.)

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