Rethinking Pride
The endorsements come amid a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) backlash from President Donald Trump’s administration, while transgender rights have become a hot-button culture-war issue. Brands ranging from Anheuser-Busch and Diageo to Comcast and Nissan have dialed back or dropped their Pride sponsorships, with some citing the current economic instability.
Politics loom large, though, with 61% of companies saying pressure from the Trump administration has caused them to rethinking their Pride activities, per Gravity Research’s Pride Pulse Poll.
In recent months, Trump signed an executive order to “end radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing.” Since then, 39% of companies have said they plan to reduce their Pride-centric support, with Gravity Research noting that Pride engagement is “being re-engineered—as polarization deepens, brands are favoring lower-profile, internally focused strategies that minimize public exposure while signaling commitment to employees.”
The situation has meant hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue to Pride events, according to national nonprofit USA Prides, including the loss of 30-year Pride partner AB InBev in its St. Louis hometown.
At least a few brands with recent DEI-related controversies—Target and H&M among them—will take part in Pride celebrations in L.A. and New York. At the same time, Minnesota’s Twin Cities Pride announced in January that it was turning down Target’s sponsorship in the wake of the retailer’s DEI rollback. Target, via an emailed statement, said it will “continue to support local Pride events around the country, as we have done for many years.”
LA Pride, which often signs three-year deals with its endorsers, said there are fall-offs and changes each year on the sponsor roster but that “no one has come to us this year and said they’re not renewing because of the current political environment or the rollbacks in DEI,” Cervantes said.
And though the deadline for deals has passed, organizers may continue adding more brands because of ongoing interest, he said, likely to the free street fair that has entertainment programming, food trucks, and brand booths.
