Pride Organizers Nationwide Suffer Sponsorship Losses, Funding Cuts

Pride Month is less than six weeks away, but across the country, organizers are worried about how celebrations may look this year. Dozens of Pride festival organizers, including those behind major celebrations in San Francisco and New York, have reported losing up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in corporate funding. 

Suzanne Ford, director of San Francisco Pride, told NBC that her event has lost around $300,000 in corporate funding, nearly 10% of its total budget. Ford said corporate sponsors fear pushback from the Trump administration, which has maintained a consistent anti-LGBTQ+, anti-DEI agenda. In an Inauguration Day order that stripped funding from all federal DEI initiatives, the president called DEI “illegal and immoral,” raising concerns among many corporations that their private initiatives would lead to blowback from the new administration. 

Among the sponsors who have pulled out of San Francisco Pride are Anheuser-Busch, Comcast, and Nissan. Though the San Francisco celebrations are just over two months away, Ford said several other sponsors have not yet confirmed whether they will continue to fund the festival or not. Anheuser-Busch also pulled funding from St. Louis PrideFest, which the company had sponsored for over 30 years. Meanwhile, Target, which canceled its company-wide DEI initiatives shortly after the inauguration, is still a major sponsor of New York’s Pride celebrations. However, the company has asked to maintain a “silent partnership role,” meaning its logos will not be displayed in official advertising.

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In smaller, more rural areas, the funding cuts have been even more drastic. Eve Keller, co-president of USA Prides, a national network of pride organizers, estimated some smaller festivals have lost up to 90% of their typical budget, forcing them to scale back on planned events. “When we are down money, we’re down safety and security and accessibility,” Keller told NBC. 

Among the county’s largest Pride celebrations, however, there’s another fear brewing. On Friday, organizers for DC WorldPride, a two-week festival that attracts nearly 2 million visitors from around the globe, said they feared the festival was no longer safe for international trans attendees. Speaking to NBC, Ryan Bos—the Executive Director of Capital Pride Alliance, which organized this year’s WorldPride—said organizers may issue a statement “telling trans folks internationally not to come, or if they come, they come at their own risk.” Bos cited President Trump’s recent anti-trans policies, particularly his executive order declaring gender as binary and assigned at birth, as a potential danger to trans people traveling from outside the U.S. 

In a later statement to News4 Washington, a spokesperson for Capital Pride Alliance said that “DC remains one of the most inclusive cities in the nation,” and that “local officials and law enforcement agencies around the region are working tirelessly to ensure that everyone is welcomed and able to participate fully.” However, the statement also recommended that “travelers considering entry to the United States make an informed decision based on the potential risks involved,” and said, “We, alongside advocates and partner organizations, continue to actively navigate the measures being put in place by the current federal administration.” The celebrations are scheduled from May 17 to June 8.