A host of American corporations are backpedaling from their involvement in gay pride events this year amid the Trump administration’s rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts across the country.
There have been a growing number of reports that organizers of major gay pride parades and festivals across the U.S. are scrambling for funds due to several longtime corporate sponsors scaling back their support of LGBTQ events. Some scholars explained to the Daily Caller News Foundation that news of companies pulling back from pride events may reflect a broader shift away from DEI in corporate America.
“We are seeing major companies, in meaningful numbers, either eliminating or modifying their DEI programs, which certainly does include sponsoring LGBTQ+ pride events and so on,” Stefan Padfield, the executive director of the National Center’s Free Enterprise Project, told the DCNF. “I think really the bottom line here is that there has just arisen an awareness on the part of executives that this promotion of these [pride] events runs such a meaningful risk of being perceived as pushing transgender ideology on parents … I think corporations have finally woken up to the reality that that’s a very big risk for them to be taking.”
“Those of us on the right, conservatives in this space, we are just pushing corporations to get back to neutral,” Padfield added. “We just want them to stop pushing these agendas down our throat, just get back to producing great products and services and making America great through the power of capitalism in that way … the left, on the other hand, wants the corporations to push their agendas. This is really a step back to neutrality, and I think we need to celebrate it and encourage more of it.”
The recent reports of some corporate sponsors backing out of major pride events come amid President Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to eliminate DEI policies across the public and private sectors, including signing several executive orders aiming to terminate what he has referred to as “radical and wasteful” DEI programs across the federal government.
“It’s consistent with what we have seen in terms of DEI statements,” Jonathan Butcher, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told the DCNF. “We have seen businesses close either pull down their DEI statements or close their DEI offices, especially over the last 24 months, and I would anticipate that we would see more such policy changes because of what the Trump administration has issued in terms of executive orders.”
Former President Joe Biden led a massive push to embed DEI programs across federal government agencies during his presidency. In a 2023 campaign video, Trump criticized Biden for entrenching “woke” ideology in the federal government, claiming the Biden administration was “weaponizing every tool of government power to push this racism and this Communism and Marxism.”
Moreover, Attorney General Pam Bondi has spearheaded an effort to overturn Biden-era DEI programs at the Department of Justice and carry out Trump’s executive orders aiming to crack down on diversity policies at federal agencies.
While many American corporations leaned into promoting various DEI and LGBTQ-related efforts over the past few years, a slew of major companies have been retreating from diversity policies since Trump returned to office. Though, some experts have warned that certain companies may be rebranding their DEI policies instead of eliminating them.
“Because gay pride events and LGBTQ-related activities are all a part of the DEI landscape … they [companies] realize both in terms of popular support for DEI is dwindling, but also attention from the White House and state’s attorneys general into whether or not these DEI programs violate civil rights laws, that’s all kinda pointing to the idea that these companies are, like you have found, limiting their involvement [in LGBTQ causes],” Butcher told the DCNF. “And, it turns out, these are pretty radical causes, they are out of step with the mainstream.”
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