Why “Pride Month” 2025 Is Falling Flat

In recent years, June has been marked by a flood of LGBTQ-themed ads and marketing campaigns from major retailers and brands commemorating “Pride Month.” But this year, the festivities have been noticeably muted, and it seems many corporations are realizing just how toxic left-wing gender ideology has become.

Ahead of the start of Pride month, the Associated Press (AP) reported that LGBTQ-related events are facing “hundreds of thousands of dollars in budget shortfalls ahead of the summer festivities” as corporations drop their donations.

San Francisco Pride, the AP reports, “is facing a $200,000 budget gap after corporate donors dropped out.” The group said it felt “abandoned” after “five major corporate donors, including Comcast, Anheuser-Busch and Diageo,” dropped their sponsorship.

Similarly, KC Pride, in Kansas City, “lost about $200,000 — roughly half its annual budget.” Nissan and PepsiCo pulled back their support for NYC Pride as well. The LGBT group saw “20% of its corporate sponsors” reduce or completely eliminate their donations. Mastercard will no longer sponsor the event but will still participate in the march, according to the Wall Street Journal.

A survey of corporate executives suggests these are not anecdotes, but evidence of a larger trend.

“A Gravity Research survey of over 200 corporate executives found that 39% of companies plan to reduce engagement with ‘Pride Month’ this year, cutting sponsorships of ‘Pride’ events and reducing rainbow-themed merchandise and public messaging,” according to Catholic Vote.

“It’s clear that the administration and their supporters are driving the change,” President of Gravity Research Luke Hartig told CNN. “Companies are under increasing pressure not to engage and speak out on issues.”

But as much as LGBTQ activists would like to believe corporations are just scared of backlash from the Trump administration, that analysis seems to invert what’s really going on. “Pride” isn’t losing cultural ground because Trump won last November; rather, Trump won because his position on issues like men playing in women’s sports and prescribing puberty blockers to gender-confused children aligns with a majority of the American people.

As even CNN acknowledged in its own piece covering corporations eschewing Pride Month sponsorships, trouble really began for Pride Month advocates in 2023, when Target and Bud Light faced backlash for their decisions. First, Bud Light, owned by Anheuser-Busch, gave branded beers to Dylan Mulvaney, a male social media influencer who became famous for documenting his “transition.” Mulvaney now claims to be a “girl” and posted a series of videos documenting his first “days of girlhood.”

Quickly after Mulvaney began promoting the beer in April 2023, Anheuser Busch’s stock tanked and Bud Light lost its spot as the top-selling beer in the country – a position it held for two decades. By June 2023, Mexican beer Modelo became the top-selling beer.

The swift and ongoing fallout from that campaign even generated a new phrase – “the Bud Light treatment,” which refers to a company tanking after going all-in on Pride Month.

Not having learned any lessons, retailer Target leaned into Pride Month soon after the Bud Light fiasco hit the news by promoting merchandise to kids like “chest binders” for young girls and “tuck-friendly” swimsuits in “adult extra small” size, which could fit younger boys. This year, Target announced that it would limit its Pride merchandise in some stores, according to CNN. A photo that shows a Target display in Southern California selling patriotic merchandise this June instead of LGBT clothing, as the same store did just a few years ago, has also gone viral.

Even with Joe Biden in the White House and Democrats in control of both chambers of Congress, corporations were still easing off their Pride Month contributions. Trump’s election only confirmed that everyday people were fed up with being force-fed a healthy dose of far-left gender ideology every time they step into a retail store. Once Pride month became about pushing transgender surgeries and drugs for minors and exposing children to sexualized public displays, it became a reputational hazard for major brands to directly associate themselves with it.

Public polling confirms that gender ideology is on the outs with the American people. A January 2025 poll by the New York Times found a full 67 percent of Democrats do not want men competing in women’s sports, even if they “identify” as a woman. This view is shared by 94 percent of Republicans and 64 percent of Independents.

About 56 percent of Independents also want transgender drugs and surgeries for minors banned, according to an October 2024 poll. Likewise, 65 percent of Americans hold to the biologically accurate position that there are only two sexes, according to a 2023 poll.

It is no wonder, then, that Trump won a historic re-election in November by capitalizing on the unpopular positions of the left wing of the Democrat Party. Indeed, one of his most successful ads said Kamala Harris was for “they/them” and supports taxpayer-funded surgeries for transgender prisoners.

Corporations are beginning to wake up to the fact that most Americans are not left-wing activists. For a long time, there was a very loud left-wing minority that controlled corporate culture, and they deluded themselves into believing that they were in the majority.

But the reality is that the majority of Americans always either rolled their eyes or openly opposed corporate pride messaging and branding. Recent years have seen more and more everyday people willing to finally speak out – and as usual, once corporations realized the threat to their bottom line from embracing radical, unpopular political positions, they quickly retreated.

Matt Lamb is an AMAC Newsline contributor and an associate editor for The College Fix. He previously worked for Students for Life of America, Students for Life Action, and Turning Point USA. He previously interned for Open the Books. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Examiner, The Federalist, LifeSiteNews, Human Life Review, Headline USA, and other outlets. The opinions expressed are his own. Follow him @mattlamb22 on X.