LGBTQ+ pride festivals around the country have lost millions of dollars in corporate sponsorships this year, as more companies fear being targeted by the Trump administration over their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Nearly a fourth of corporate donors to NYC Pride, including Mastercard, Citi, Pepsi, Nissan and PwC, pulled sponsorships totaling an estimated $750,000.
At WorldPride, held this year in Washington, D.C., consulting giants Booz Allen Hamilton and Deloitte dropped their sponsorships and have lost nearly $260,000 in funding.
Anheuser-Busch, the brewer for the brands Budweiser and Bud Light, withdrew sponsorship from pride events in San Francisco and Columbus, and in St. Louis where the company is headquartered.
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The sharp decline in corporate sponsorship for pride festivals this year comes as President Donald Trump has threatened anything related to DEI and associated with the LGBTQ+ community ― and corporations have retreated their support.
On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order declaring DEI initiatives “illegal and immoral discrimination,” and announced the termination of all federal offices and grants related to DEI training. In a second order, Trump vowed to end the federal funding of “gender ideology,” a right-wing term that is used to refer to the existence of transgender people and their rights.
Over the last decade, corporate America began to increasingly support Pride festivals after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage in 2015. Pride-themed and rainbow-colored products, from clothing to credit cards, had become so universal at retailers each June that some began to critique corporate support as “rainbow capitalism.”
Critics lamented that corporations only supported LGBTQ+ communities with big displays during Pride while being silent the rest of the year ― or in some cases donating millions to anti-LGBTQ politicians.
Some have argued that corporate support was at odds with the liberatory origins of the festivities.
“The older generation was fighting for acceptance. They said, ‘We want to be part of the whole, we don’t want to be separated from everybody. We want to be part of the group,’” Tim Bennett, the former marketing director at Subaru told Marketplace in 2021. “And Pride is, you know, more of a festival and a corporate party in some regards. It’s no longer the kind of activism that it used to be.”
The first Pride parade was held in 1970 in New York City, one year after trans and queer people spent several days protesting police harassment outside of the Stonewall Inn in what became known as the Stonewall Uprising.
But now, as the Trump administration has launched a war against LGBTQ+ rights and DEI initiatives, we’re seeing that corporate America is too scared to don a rainbow flag even outside of the country.
Five prominent American companies ― Google, Home Depot, Nissan, Adidas and Clorox ― said they were suddenly pulling their financial support of Pride Toronto, Canada’s largest pride festival.
“These are American companies and they are showing their true colors, Kojo Modest, the executive director of Pride Toronto told the Guardian. “We thought they were with the community, but clearly, they’re not.”
The corporate exodus from Pride events follows a trend of companies shifting away from publicly supporting LGBTQ+ communities in recent years, as dozens of states have passed laws restricting trans people’s rights to access medical care, play school sports, use bathrooms and participate in public life.
In the past two years, right-wing social media influencers have targeted specific companies that have publicly supported LGBTQ+ communities. In 2023, conservatives pressured consumers to boycott Anheuser-Busch’s beer, Bud Light, after Dylan Mulvaney, a trans TikTok personality, appeared in a short video promoting the beer. Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Marsha Blackburn later called for a Senate investigation into the company’s partnership with Mulvaney, baselessly claiming that the company was marketing products to young audiences.
That same year, conservatives also boycotted Target’s line of Pride Month merchandise, and the company saw its first quarterly sales drop in six years. In the aftermath of the boycott, Target officials told investors that the company would have to “adapt and learn.”
Trump’s open hostility toward the trans community coupled with his efforts to reduce government spending and implement tariffs have made this year’s economic climate less than opportune for investors looking to support Pride events.
The downward trend has even trickled down to local pride events that have already struggled to garner financial support.
Last year, Stevie Miller helped start up the first pride event in West Plains, a deep red city in southern Missouri. With a shoestring budget, he and his co-organizers were able to host 900 people. Since then they have turned the festival into a nonprofit organization to support drag shows, educational panels and community events throughout the year.
Miller said he tried to get in contact with various corporate sponsors without much luck, and said that the nonprofit is largely supported by LGBTQ+ organizations within Missouri and from funds raised through a drag and art show.
“There has been a level of difficulty due to hostility,” Miller said to HuffPost. “There is a small town mentality that would rather we left than proudly celebrate here so many local businesses have been silent.”