Organisers of San Francisco Pride, one of the country’s largest LGBTQ Pride celebrations, say a “very abnormal” number of companies have dropped out of sponsoring the Pride march this year, as corporate support for LGBTQ Pride and diversity, equity, and inclusion appears to be dwindling.
- San Francisco Pride organizers confirmed to Forbes four companies have dropped out of supporting its Pride celebrations this year: Comcast, Anheuser-Busch; the alcoholic beverage company that owns Budweiser and Stella Artois, Diageo; owner of alcoholic beverage brands including Guinness and Smirnoff, and Benefit Cosmetics.
- Multiple local outlets reported wine company La Crema had also pulled out, but the company told SFGATE it is still working on a partnership with SF Pride, and it also has other upcoming Pride sponsorships listed on its website.
- San Francisco Pride executive director Suzanne Ford told SFGATE these companies backed out of supporting its 2025 Pride celebrations citing financial constraints, but Ford said she “interpreted that companies are making decisions that at this time it’s not good to be sponsoring Pride.”
- Ford told SFGATE the companies who dropped their sponsorships represented $300,000 in funding, slightly less than a tenth of the $3.2 million SF Pride budgeted for its upcoming events in June.
- In a statement to Forbes, San Francisco Pride organizers said the organization is “committed to leveraging partnerships that align with our mission and core values,” adding these sponsorships “enable us to make things happen—whether hiring queer staff, underwriting community initiatives, or supporting small LGBTQ+ owned businesses.”
Yes, though it’s unclear how many. Booz Allen Hamilton, a federal contractor based in the Washington, D.C. area, pulled out from supporting this year’s World Pride celebration in Washington, which World Pride organizers told Politico was because the company indicated supporting Pride could risk violating President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting DEI across the federal government.
The corporate sponsorship lists on the websites of several large Pride organizations also appear to have shrunk in recent months.
NYC Pride, one of the largest Pride marches in the country, appeared to remove multiple sponsors from its website between January and February, according to Internet Archive captures, though it’s unclear whether these companies withdrew support.
Target appeared to be removed from NYC Pride’s platinum sponsors list, the highest level of sponsorship, according to Internet Archive captures taken around the time it rolled back some of its DEI initiatives in late January. One of Target’s policy changes was to evaluate “corporate partnerships to ensure they are directly connected to our roadmap for growth.”
(Forbes has reached out to both Target and NYC Pride for comment). NYC Pride previously criticized Target for removing some of its products marketed toward the LGBTQ community amid conservative backlash in 2023, acknowledging in a statement Target had been a platinum sponsor of NYC Pride for “many years.”
Other companies that appear to have been removed from NYC Pride’s sponsor list between January and February, according to the Internet Archive, include Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Citi and Amazon’s Audible (Forbes has reached out to these companies for comment).
Forbes has reached out to other major Pride organizations—including Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago and Denver—about whether corporations have nixed support this year.
Days after Target announced in January that it would reverse some of its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, Minnesota-based Twin Cities Pride severed ties with Target, which had previously been a corporate sponsor.
Organisers crowdfunded to raise the $50,000 it lost by splitting from Target, and they far exceeded expectations, raising more than $103,000.
Dwindling support for Pride comes amid a wave of backlash targeting DEI across the federal government and corporate America. Many companies, including Meta, Amazon and Google, have walked back diversity goals and other DEI-related programs in recent months.
Some companies also appeared to pull back on public support for Pride last year after conservative boycotts targeted various companies, including Bud Light, Target and Nike, over their outreach to the LGBTQ community.
