San Francisco Pride Director Suzanne Ford feels both saddened and determined about this year’s plans for the city’s iconic Pride parade.
The longtime LGBTQ organization is dealing with the potential loss of $300,000 in corporate sponsorship for its hugely popular annual parade, funding needed ahead of June’s Pride Month. Multiyear sponsors including Comcast, Anheuser-Busch and Diageo have all backed away from participating.
“We’re very disappointed. We’re hurt. It’s not just a number or transaction,” Ford told USA TODAY shortly after announcing the sponsors’ exit. “We know everybody is facing difficult decisions to make right now. But we’re not going anywhere.”
Comcast and Diageo told USA TODAY Thursday that while those companies are not sponsoring the SF Pride parade, they are supporting other Pride-related events across the city. Anheuser-Busch has not returned USA TODAY’s request for comment.
San Francisco isn’t alone. Kendra Walker, a former president of Pride Houston, said a similar sponsorship trend is occurring for Pride parades and festivals nationwide. The organization currently has a $100,000 deficit for its 47th Annual Houston Pride Festival and Parade, also scheduled for June.
“It’s happening everywhere,” Walker said. “Most of us have some of the same sponsors, and once you started seeing cuts in San Francisco, San Diego and here, it’s like a double-whammy. The reasons become both economic – and political.”
In the Nation’s Capital, organizers of WorldPride 2025, one of the largest LGBTQ+ festivals, said events are expected to go on without a hitch, despite losing a key sponsor, government defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton.
The sponsorship shortfalls for nonprofit Pride organizations − which hold events that attract millions of people across America − come amid political DEI backlash. In January, President Donald Trump began issuing executive orders to dismantle DEI programs, prompting companies to end “illegal DEI discrimination” and saying they could be investigated for their initiatives.
“And our country will be woke no longer,” Trump reiterated during an address to a joint session of Congress earlier this month.
