All large companies operate within systems that in some way harm them, regardless of their position in DEI. This is not the time to stand on principles. Take the money.
San Francisco pride faces shortages as corporate sponsors withdraw
Several major companies have opted out of donations to San Francisco Pride this year, including Anheuser-Busch, Diageo, Nissan and Comcast.
Companies are not our friends.
Despite their diverse cast to ads, a press release about the rainbow trinkets they proudly sell for $2, the innovative DEI initiative, or how “brave” the hotness towards their social issues are – businesses won’t save us. They exist to sell us things. They exist to promote their brand. They exist to maximize their profits.
And our job as strange leaders is not to become a moral police officer of whether they can sponsor or donate pride to LGBTQ+ events and causes. Our job is to grab that money and use it to support our community on the brink of panmerization.
This is not a normal year. Federal funds for nonprofits supporting LGBTQ+, immigrants, people of color, and other intersecting communities are under attack as well as their tax-free status. Economists are predicting massive layoffs. Libraries, museums, cultural spaces and health programs (which employ countless LGBTQ+ individuals and provide services) are refunded.
The Trump administration fought a war with trans people
Our federal government is fighting a terrible war on our trans family, and the Supreme Court recently heard a lawsuit that could dismantle all the scope of preventive care, including access to PREP (pre-exposure prophylactics that can prevent the spread of HIV).
Here are the harsh truths we must consider in 2025: If you want to keep LGBTQ+ people healthy and alive, all dollars count more than ever.
Within the LGBTQ+ community there is a commendable vision to go back to an era where we relied on mutual aid rather than corporate dollars. But, like everything, it costs money. In 2025, that cost calls on communities of people who have lost access to medicines, lost jobs and are under political attack to give them more.
The quiet truth is that if we are expected to take the already small amount of resources we have and use them to replace them with hundreds of millions of dollars of lost sponsorship, research and healthcare, it will destroy our community financially.
Most people cannot afford to donate to all fundraisers that provide ongoing access to gender-affirming care. We can send funding for local trans services that have lost federal grants, provide them to all GoFundMes this year, and donate this year to support several research projects, helping the community remain on Payday.
We become stronger by bringing more resources into the fold rather than recycle what we have.
Pride Events need to take every dollar from any company
The truth is that companies are not beautiful. Under capitalism there is no ethical consumption.
All large companies operate within systems that in some way perpetuate harm, regardless of their position on diversity, equity or inclusion. Dei is a trade breaker on who can sponsor Pride, but we are turning a blind eye to health insurance conglomerates with questionable tactics.
In every other year, I will ask you to throw them all away. Today I am asking you to take all their money.
This means that if you are running a Pride Festival or charity event, you will determine the minimum amount you need to make the event come true and build a revitalization program to help you get overfunded in community resources after this year’s attack. This includes local HIV clinics or programs that provide gender-affirming care.
If your nonprofit is receiving corporate gifts or grants, continue to accept gifts that keep your door open. But here’s the key. In return for sponsorship, make the company a minimum commitment.
Brainstorm your team and rethink what you offer to your partner. It offers partners something valuable because it can adjustable promotional aspects, or partnerships could be reduced, but is it more authentic for the organization? A slightly tiny room can lead to great profits.
It’s time to fight for our survival rather than standing as a rule
If these companies give us a minimal minimum in the form of tax-deductible contributions, we can afford to give them a minimum in order to keep our community stable. We use them to build our own mutual aid bank.
Take that dollar.
Because in six months or a year, you probably don’t have it. Our nonprofits may be beginning to close. Service is probably more tense or completely shut down. This is not the time to stand in principle as to which sources of funding are “pure.” It’s time to gather, develop strategies and fight for survival. Every dollar we film and redirect to our community is a necessary, and perhaps a fleeting lifeline, using festival advertising capital or one-off events, to protect the health, safety and knowledge of our community.
To nonprofit leaders and community organizers reading this: Take away your money. all. Use it to get more medicine, more stability and more resources to the community. Raise it now as you have tomorrow. Please also provide details.
We are not just fighting for the present. We are fighting to maintain the future of the LGBTQ+ community everywhere. And that fight requires every dollar we can gather.
Missy Spears is the executive director of Queer Kentucky, a GLAAD-nominated media nonprofit that uses the power of storytelling to impact LGBTQ+ culture and health. In addition to working with Queer Kentucky, Spears is co-founder of the Covunity Free Fridge program, co-chairman of the board of directors of the Kentucky Civic Engagement Table, and is part of the Community Advisory Board of the Cincinnati Museum of Art, Media Outlet WCPO, and the University of Kentucky’s Center for Clinical and Translation Sciences. This column was originally published in the Louisville Courier Journal.
