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Authors: Taylor Telford
Marty Zuniga, who helps organize PrideFest in St. Louis – one of the Midwest’s biggest LGBTQ+celebrations – could tell by January thatthis season would be unlike any he’s seen.
That’s when Zuniga noticed that corporate contacts weren’t answering his emails. In the weeks that followed, longtime partners like Anheuser-Busch declined to sponsor this year’s two-day festival while others slashed donations, leaving him with a massive gap in his budget. Meanwhile, he told The Washington Post, several companies willing to commit financially also asked him to keep their names out of it.
Their rationale was consistent, Zuniga said:“We still want to support you, but we can’t scream it from the rafters.”
Amid the Trump administration’s targeting of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, companies are distancing themselves from Pride, a celebration of queer identity that began in the 1970 following the Stonewall uprising and now spans scores of cities across the globe. Intenton staying out of the government’s crosshairs, many big brands are backing away from LGBTQ+celebrations of all sizes as part of a broader DEI rollback, leaving organizers from coast to coast – including formarquee events in San Francisco, New York and the Midwest – with budget shortfalls at a time when most are anticipating higher turnout, as well as facing heightened safety and logistical challenges.
Pride organizers say they’re worried theadministration’s antipathy toward trans people and drag performers could make their events a magnet for hate against the broader LGBTQ+ community. Such crimes were already on the rise beforePresident Donald Trump returned to office in January, FBI data shows, with 1 in 5 hate crimes motivated by anti-LGBTQ+ bias.
“Not only are we losing sponsorship dollars, we’re having to spend way more on security,” said Zuniga, president of thenonprofitPride St. Louis. This year’s PrideFest will be encircled by 6-foot fencing, and Zuniga rented a nearby parking garage simply so he could shut it down. He said he wanted to ensure it could notbe used as a vantage from which to inflict violence on festivalgoers. “It’s very scary times.”
Eve Keller, co-president of United States Association of Prides, said Pride celebrations of all sizes are reckoning with a sudden drop in financial support. Keller, who is on the board of Indy Pride, noted that most local Prides do much more than put on a festival. Many host dozens of events from May through Pride Month in June, while others hold celebrations throughout the year – each one “another location, another security risk.”
“I know there’s some Pride members removing their board members’ names and faces from their websites,” Keller told The Post. “It’s a totally different atmosphere now.”
Keller acknowledged that economic uncertainty must be making it hard for companies to manage their budgets. Many Pride events have lowered the sponsorship threshold to as little as $500 to help fill the gaps, she said, but there are other, lower-profile ways for companies to signal their support, such as sending their employees to help work as parade marshals.
“We’re having these conversations with people that are passionate about staying involved but are waiting for approval from corporate,” she said.
Corporate involvement in Pride began around 2015, when the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is protected by the Constitution. Before long, Zuniga said, advertisers were eager to sponsor LGBTQ+ celebrations for a chance to attach their names and logos to the revelry – as well as reach a community that represents roughly 1 in 10 Americans and commands $1.4 trillion in annual spending power, according to analysis from Merrill Lynch.
Corporate sponsorship has become somewhat “controversial” in recent years, as some have criticized companies for offering performative, short-lived support of the LGBTQ+ community, according to Bob Witeck, president of Witeck Communications and an expert in LGBTQ+ marketing. This year is shaping up to be a “sort of a test” for large businesses, he said.
Companies – especially those that do business with the federal government – are in an environment where “they never know if day-to-day they’ll be targeted,” Witeck said. Though he understands businesses’ need to be cautious, he worries about the sort of “public surrender” some brands have made in backing away.
“Every company today is aligning their policies or language so they don’t find themselves in a risky place,” Witeck said. “But there’s vulnerability in a surrender that suggests you’re waffling on your values.”
Some corporate efforts to embrace the queer community have backfired in recent years. There was Bud Light’s short-lived partnership with trans comedian and influencer Dylan Mulvaney in 2023, which was met with vitriol from some conservative consumers, who dumped cans of Bud Light and called for a boycott of parent company Anheuser-Busch, a longtime partner of GLAAD. The brand’s response, which didn’t directly address the hate directed at Mulvaney, angered queer people, many of whom joined the boycott.
Anheuser-Busch did not respond to a request for comment.
Target also faced blowback in 2023 over some merchandise in its Pride line, which intensified after the retailer pulled some items from stores. People claiming to be angry about the removal of merchandise targeted stores in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Utah with bomb threats.
Anxiety over Pride had already roiled corporations after the incidents with Target and Anheuser-Busch, but fear of potential blowback is “even more heightened,” this year, said Luke Hartig, who counsels Fortune 500 companies and other large employers as president of Gravity Research.
In January, when Trump signed a flurry of executive orders to end DEI programs in the federal government, he also directed agencies to draw up lists of public companies to investigate over their DEI policies – a move that legal experts said was meant to create a chill in the private sector. Weeks later, the Federal Communications Commission notified Comcast that its DEI practices were under investigation.
Nissan, meanwhile, rolled back some of its policies late last year after being pressured on X by the conservative activist Robby Starbuck, a forceful voice in the anti-DEI movement whose online campaigns have pressured brands such as Boeing, Caterpillar, Toyota, Molson Coors and Tractor Supply to revise their policies.
If companies are participating, they’re not touting involvement publicly as they have in the past, Hartigsaid. Many have “given more leeway” to their LGBTQ+ employee resource groups to represent them at Pride in the viewthat it’s less controversial than the broader brand signaling support.
Some of the nation’s biggest Pride celebrations, which rely on corporate partnerships to deliver massive, multiday experiences that will draw hundreds of thousands – are particularlyvulnerable in this climate.
Capital Pride Alliance, which is hosting WorldPride in the District in May and June, told The Post that some longtime sponsors aren’t participating this year, while others “are graciously providing sponsorship dollars but are acting as silent partners without recognition.” Other sponsors “are providing funds and receiving recognition but not participating at the parade and festival.”
Comcast, Booz Allen Hamilton and Mastercard were among the big brands that backed away from this year’s celebration, CPA confirmed.
Suzanne Ford, executive director of San Francisco Pride, said corporate partners usually make up about two-thirds of her more than $3 million budget. But she’s short roughly $400,000 this year amid lower corporate contributions, with Anheuser-Busch, Comcast and Nissan among brands that backed out.
Anheuser-Busch and Comcast did not respond to requests for comment.
“People don’t realize that these large Prides are so fragile,”Ford said. Though there’s been an uptick in personal donations, and some sponsorslike Levi’s have returned after years away, “it’s not enough to offset the losses,” she said.
In a statement, Nissan said it is “currently reviewing all marketing and sales spending, including auto shows, sports properties and other entertainment activations,” and that the company “remains committed to promoting an inclusive culture for employees, consumers, dealers and other key stakeholders.”
Companies have not explicitly mentionedthese political tensions in conservations with Ford, casting their decisions as economically motivated.
“They’re framing it as a budgetary limitation, and I do understand there’s some truth in there,” she said. “But budgeting is about values.”
Kevin Kilbride, media and marketing manager of NYC Pride, said that about a third of their corporate partners have pulled back or are yet to confirm partnerships this year, leaving the festival with a roughly $350,000 shortfall in its more than $3 million budget.
“Many partners have cited economic considerations amid uncertainty around the impact of tariffs,” Kilbride said. “Others have expressed concern about potential blowback from the current Administration for publicly supporting Pride and other DEAI initiatives.”
For some Prides, community partnershipsare backfilling some corporate losses.
This year, after Zunigaspoke out about Anheuser-Busch pulling its sponsorshipof PrideFest in St. Louis, its hometown, the community rallied and raised enough to make up for the nearly $150,000inlost corporate dollars.
“This year, there is not one naming-right partner,” Zuniga said. “This community has rallied so much that I’ve raised enough money where I don’t need that level of corporate support.”
Smaller festivals on shoestring budgets also feel the pain. In suburban and rural communities outside Indianapolis, Hendricks County Pride will charge vendors for the first time after the festival’s sole corporate partner slashed its contribution from $2,500 – usually the bulk of its budget – to $400 this year, board member Angie Egler said in an interview.
But Egler has been heartened by support from small businesses including alocal HVAC outfit and abrewery crafting a private-label beer just for the celebration, which she expects will draw as many as 3,000 attendees.
Mindful of the political climate and her own fears – she’s gotten death threats in the past – Egler said she and other organizers are pressing forward because “Pride this year is more important than it has been in decades.”
