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Companies Pull Back From Pride Events as Trump Targets D.E.I.
When it came time to plan San Francisco Pride this year, Suzanne Ford, the organization’s executive director, reached out to some longtime corporate sponsors to ask how they planned to support the event.
Their abrupt responses stunned her: Not at all.
Several of the event’s largest sponsors — including Comcast, Anheuser-Busch and the beverage company Diageo — told Ms. Ford that they would not be providing funding this year. The companies, which together provided over $200,000 to San Francisco Pride in 2024, each told her that supporting the event was no longer in its budget, she said.
“It was totally shocking,” Ms. Ford said, adding that some of the companies had supported San Francisco Pride for decades. “It was like somebody in your family just all of a sudden saying, ‘We don’t want to be involved with you anymore.’”
With only weeks left to lock in sponsors for the summertime events, Pride organizers across the United States say that many longtime corporate sponsors are suddenly being evasive about their financial commitments or abandoning their support entirely. While some companies cited tight budgets or economic uncertainty, Pride organizers see another factor: President Trump’s widening crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion, which has prompted corporate America to retreat from such initiatives.
“There’s a lot of fear of repercussions for aligning with our festival,” said Wes Shaver, the president of Milwaukee Pride. Many corporations he has spoken to are worried that the Trump administration will classify funding Pride events — one of the signature L.G.B.T.Q. festivals on the calendar — as a diversity, equity and inclusion effort, and that they’ll be punished or penalized. “Everyone’s afraid,” he said.
In recent weeks, Booz Allen Hamilton, Deloitte, Comcast and the auto dealership group Darcars have dropped their sponsorship of WorldPride, to be held in Washington, D.C., organizers said.
Andi Otto, the executive director of Twin Cities Pride, said that some longtime sponsors were leaving his calls and emails unanswered, and that his organization was about $200,000 behind its funding goal.
And Hampton Roads Pride in Norfolk, Va., has had some sponsors reduce their donations, while others have postponed decisions, said Jeff Ryder, the organization’s president.
This is a sharp reversal from past years — when corporations clamored to have their logos be seen at Pride events — and is creating deep unease among many L.G.B.T.Q. people.
“The tone has definitely changed,” Mr. Shaver said. While none of his sponsors have officially dropped out, Mr. Shaver estimates that he will lose about $50,000 in corporate funds this year, a 30 percent reduction from last year.
To adjust, he plans to scale back some performances, curb marketing plans and abandon hopes to hire big-name acts.
Pride Toronto is also taking a hit, organizers said. So far, it is short over $300,000 — out of a total budget of around $5.6 million — because corporations with U.S. ties have pulled out or reduced their donations, according to Kojo Modeste, the organization’s executive director. The event plans to cut one of its five stages, shorten performances and cancel its signature “Island Party” event on the Toronto Islands.
Nissan, one of the companies that pulled out of Pride Toronto, said in a statement that its decision not to sponsor the event this year was “due to a re-evaluation of all our marketing and media activations in a variety of activities.”
Corporate sponsorships help pay for security, insurance, permitting and equipment rentals. But for some groups, the cuts could reverberate beyond this summer’s Pride events. In Washington, the funding gap is endangering an endowment planned as part of WorldPride to support local L.G.B.T.Q. organizations that provide housing, food, clothing and group therapy.
A spokeswoman for Comcast declined to say why the company was withdrawing its sponsorship of WorldPride and San Francisco Pride, but said it was supporting smaller Pride events in California, including in Oakland, Silicon Valley and Sacramento. Diageo declined to comment. Anheuser-Busch, Booz Allen Hamilton, Deloitte and Darcars did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
John Paul Rollert, an adjunct associate professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, said that many organizations worry “that they will be subject to heightened scrutiny and perhaps even reprisal by the current administration” if they support D.E.I.-related efforts.
While many companies blamed budgetary issues or potential economic headwinds, “I don’t believe that for one moment,” Mr. Rollert said. “Supporting a Pride event is not a particularly expensive undertaking. This is a fear of potential reputational harm that might come from the administration turning its spotlight on them.”
Ms. Ford had hoped to raise $2.3 million from corporate sponsors for San Francisco Pride this year, but as of mid-March had secured only $1 million. Insurance, security and medical services alone cost over $1.2 million, she said, prompting her to seek new corporate sponsors and solicit individual donations.
Many organizers said that most sponsors were sticking with them, and that some had even increased their donations. But the cooling support from some has refocused attention on how reliant large Pride events are on corporate backing.
For decades, companies grew increasingly comfortable associating their brands with L.G.B.T.Q. communities, said Matt Skallerud, the president of Pink Media, which specializes in L.G.B.T.Q. marketing. But that began to change in 2023, when a marketing campaign by Bud Light with the transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney provoked outrage from the right and a boycott of the beer.
Months later, Target faced a backlash over its Pride Month store displays. After Target scaled back the displays, there came another backlash, this time from the left.
“At that point, a lot of other companies said, ‘Whoa, I think we need to slow down,’” Mr. Skallerud said. Some began to dial back spending on Pride-related marketing and events.
Since returning to the White House in January, Mr. Trump has ramped up his anti-D.E.I. efforts. After he issued an executive order instructing federal agencies to investigate “illegal D.E.I.” in the private sector, Mr. Skallerud said that many companies pulled the plug on such efforts. In recent weeks, Paramount, Google and Goldman Sachs have become the latest big-name companies to roll back D.E.I. programs.
The retreat — at a moment when many L.G.B.T.Q. people feel under threat — has added to criticism that corporations only support their community when it benefits them financially, a practice called “pinkwashing” or “rainbow capitalism.”
It suggests, Mr. Skallerud said, that companies “were only in it halfheartedly, and they weren’t completely our partners.”
Rep. Barry Moore won the Republican primary runoff in the Alabama Senate race, NBC News projects, making him the heavy favorite in the general election to succeed Sen. Tommy Tuberville this fall.
Moore, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, defeated former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson for the GOP nomination. The two candidates were forced into a runoff after no one secured more than 50% of the vote in a crowded May 19 primary field.
Alabama’s Senate seat opened up after Tuberville launched his run for governor last year. He easily won the GOP nomination in the race last month.
In a victory speech Tuesday, Moore pointed to his relationship with Trump.
“When I call [Trump], he takes my calls, and we can work together with the senators, that delegation and certainly the president of the United States to make sure that Alabama has an opportunity to bring the jobs back here that we need,” Moore said.
Trump held a tele-rally with Moore last week and reiterated his endorsement Monday on Truth Social, calling Moore “an America First Patriot who has been with me from the very beginning.” Moore’s campaign featured Trump’s endorsements in multiple advertisements.
Moore, a former state lawmaker who was first elected to Congress in 2020, has pushed against allowing transgender women and girls to play in women’s sports and criticized “lawless Democrat sanctuary” cities while positioning himself as a staunch pro-gun advocate.
Hudson, who is the CEO of groups that work with law enforcement to combat child trafficking and focus on firearms instruction, tried to run as a political outsider. He ran unsuccessfully for Jefferson County sheriff in 2022.
And while Moore won Trump’s backing, Hudson campaigned as a “warrior for President Trump’s America First Agenda.”
“I will deploy to the Senate to defend President Trump with the same ethos they taught us in SEAL training: I am never out of the fight and I will not fail,” Hudson said on his website.
The runoff campaign turned negative. An outside group aligned with Hudson accused Moore, who served in the Alabama National Guard and Army Reserve, of “stolen valor.” In a 2024 letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed by dozens of GOP lawmakers, the Republicans accused Walz, then the Democratic vice presidential nominee, of misrepresenting his military service. Moore is listed as a signer, which marked him as having served as a “staff sergeant.”
Records shared by Moore’s campaign, though, indicated Moore was discharged with a rank of cadet.
Moore’s campaign released further information, saying his pay grade was “E-6 Staff Sergeant,” adding that “Barry has never called himself a retired Staff Sergeant, or even a Staff Sergeant nor did he retire from service — he was honorably discharged.”
Moore’s campaign also defended the title discrepancy on the Walz letter in a release on his website.
“That was a coalition letter signed by a lot of people, and the Staff Sergeant and retired title line was supplied by its organizers,” the website said. “He has never used that title and never affirmed it.”
Moore also faced questions about a 2020 ad in which he said he has “been in those combat boots,” though he did not serve overseas or in combat.
“Members of the National Guard wear combat boots to train. Here is a link to the shoe,” Moore’s website said, responding to questions about the ad.
Moore also said in a video on social media that he was “never in combat, and I never claimed to be.”
Education Secretary Linda McMahon is at the center of the Trump administration’s work to dismantle the agency she runs, the U.S. Department of Education.
Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Two of the U.S. Department of Education’s biggest responsibilities will shift to other federal agencies: safeguarding student civil rights and supervising programs for students with disabilities.
The Trump administration said Tuesday it will move the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). OSERS manages programs that support students with disabilities, offering guidance and oversight to ensure states follow the landmark Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a law that guarantees disabled students access to an equitable public education.
The administration announced it would also move the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to the U.S. Department of Justice. OCR’s staff of civil rights attorneys are tasked with protecting students in K-12 schools and universities from discrimination based on disability, gender, race and national origin. OCR has been in tumult for months, targeted repeatedly by the Trump administration for staff cuts, then reversals of those cuts.
The moves to HHS and DOJ would further dismantle an agency that President Donald Trump has vowed to close, and it would leave the Education Department with a shrinking number of responsibilities.
In a letter obtained by NPR, the Education Department’s Kim Richey, who is assistant secretary for civil rights, and Kim Rogers, the acting assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services, said the shifts are part of an administration commitment to end what they called micromanagement.
“With this in mind, and after careful consideration, OSERS will be partnering with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to support the administration of programs for infants, toddlers, children, students and individuals with disabilities,” Richey and Rogers wrote. “Likewise, the Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will partner with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to strengthen enforcement of federal civil rights laws.”
While the administration claimed the move would better serve some of the nation’s most vulnerable children, disability rights advocates sounded the alarm.
“This is another vindictive attempt to undermine public education,” says Denise Forte, president and CEO of Ed Trust, a think tank focused on addressing education inequity. “And at this moment, when we know that children with disabilities need more support, not less — HHS is not the place for that.”
This is the latest effort in Secretary Linda McMahon’s self-described push to “peel back the layers of federal bureaucracy by partnering with agencies that are better suited to manage programs and empowering states and local leaders to oversee the rest.”
Edited by: Nirvi Shah and Nicole Cohen
Visual design and development by: LA Johnson
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