Chicago's Pride Parade bucks trend as corporate sponsors retreat nationwide
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Participants carry a large Pride-themed Chicago flag during the 53rd annual Chicago Pride Parade last year. Photo: Kamil Krzaczynki/AFP via Getty Images
The largest annual LGBTQ+ parade in the Midwest will snake through Northalsted on Sunday, accompanied by a full lineup of sponsors, bucking the nationwide trend of corporations pulling back support for Pride celebrations.
The big picture: Several corporations have retreated from sponsoring events promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, including Pride parades.
Why it matters: This is a major pivot for a once-proud corporate America.
The latest: PrideChicago, the nonprofit that runs the Pride Parade, has reported that corporate interest has remained steady year over year.
- They've lost some sponsors, but they've been replaced with others, according to organizers.
What they're saying: "We remain deeply grateful for the continued support of our community, partners and sponsors who stand with us in Pride," PrideChicago chair Steve Long tells Axios.
- "We have experienced — and appreciate — an uptick in community donations."
State of play: Long notes that, unlike other Pride organizations of similar sizes, they are an all-volunteer team that just started offering sponsorships in the last three years, and they don't require multi-year commitments.
- "Because of this, any year-to-year fluctuations in sponsorship participation are natural and not reflective of larger national patterns," Long added.
- The Chicago Pride Parade has 150 floats and group participants and welcomes over a million spectators annually.
The intrigue: The Chicago Pride Parade isn't affiliated with Pride Fest and the neighborhood chamber of commerce.
Reality check: Smaller Pride festivals and parades in the suburbs have felt the funding pinch.
Context: Axios has confirmed companies like Target, Verizon and Walmart are scaling back support in parades across the country.
- Other big names, such as Starbucks, JPMorgan Chase and Cupcake wines, are less present at Pride this year.
- "Those companies are making a huge mistake," longtime political strategist and LGBTQ+ activist Richard Streetman tells Axios. "They are giving up a lifetime of loyalty from LGBTQ+ people and their many allies out of fear of reprisals from a temporary situation in Washington."
Yes, but: Local companies like Wintrust Bank, Metra and Ulta are still headline sponsors in Chicago.
Zoom out: Mastercard, Citi, Pepsi, Nissan and PwC pulled sponsorship of NYC Pride. Booz Allen Hamilton and Deloitte pulled out of WorldPride in Washington, D.C., and Anheuser-Busch, Comcast and Diageo stopped sponsoring San Francisco Pride.
- Meanwhile, Twin Cities Pride rejected hometown-headquartered Target's sponsorship, citing wishy-washy support of the LGBTQ+ community and its DEI rollbacks.
By the numbers: 39% of corporations have scaled back external Pride Month engagements this year, according to Gravity Research data.
- This is a sharp increase from last year, when only 9% said they were changing their front-facing Pride support.
- 57% of companies that are federal contractors plan to reduce participation, highlighting the risk of federal investigations.
Zoom in: The risk for engaging around LGBTQ+ issues has increased 42% since this time last year, according to Gravity Research insights shared with Axios.
- The most scrutinized corporate actions internally include insurance coverage for gender-affirming care, bathroom access policies, preferred pronoun usage and LGBTQ+ employee resource groups.
- Meanwhile, the external engagements that are most scrutinized are Pride festivals or related event sponsorships, third-party surveys or corporate rankings, and donations or support for LGBTQ+-focused nonprofit organizations.
The bottom line: Roughly 6 in 10 companies cite the Trump administration as the top reason for this change, per Gravity Research.