Corporate pullback from LGBTQ groups leaves Atlanta organizations in the lurch

Atlanta Black Pride, a nonprofit dedicated to educating and supporting the region’s minority communities, has lost at least five corporate sponsors this year, said Terence Stewart, the group’s president and CEO. Other sponsors have asked to restrict their funding so it doesn’t support the nonprofit’s trans or DEI-related programming, he said. And a potential sponsor, which Stewart did not name, went so far as to ask in May if the organization could take out “Black” from its name.

Stewart declined the request and the funding.

“I’m like, ‘That’s the name of the organization, so why would we do that?’” Stewart recalled.

Credit: Steve Schaefer

Credit: Steve Schaefer

Nearly 40% of corporations this year planned to decrease their external Pride Month engagements, a sharp jump from last year when only 9% of companies said they planned to scale down their engagement, Axios reported in May, citing data from polling and analytics firm Gravity Research. This change is being driven by the Trump administration and conservative policymakers and activists, according to Gravity Research.

One of the first executive orders President Donald Trump signed on Inauguration Day declared that the federal government would only recognize two sexes based on biological characteristics in order to “defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience.”

Eric Bloem, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s vice president of corporate citizenship, accused the Trump administration in a statement of “weaponizing federal agencies,” including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Justice Department, “to intimidate companies to intimidate companies that support LGBTQ+ inclusion.”

That, Bloem said, creates “an anti-business, anti-worker atmosphere.”

“At the same time, consumers, especially LGBTQ+ people and our allies, are paying attention. Pride isn’t a seasonal marketing opportunity — it’s a test of values. Companies that show up only when it’s convenient, or backtrack the moment there’s political pressure, risk losing trust and credibility,” Bloem continued.

Vinings-based Home Depot is one of the corporations caught in a firestorm of criticism after its Canadian arm did not sponsor Pride Toronto this year, prompting a backlash that included the city’s mayor, Olivia Chow. “Don’t shop at Home Depot,” Chow told a crowd in early June, according to Canadian news outlet CP24.

In a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a company spokesperson said, “The Home Depot Canada continually reviews its nonprofit giving and decided not to contribute to this event this year — and had no agreement in place to do so. The Home Depot Canada continues to participate in Pride activities throughout Canada and looks forward to working with Toronto Pride on future opportunities.”

The OUT Georgia Business Alliance, a chamber of commerce for LGBTQ entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders and corporate workers, has also been impacted by the shift in attitudes. In February, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta pulled out of hosting an event for the group that it had previously hosted the last two years.

OUT Georgia has also lost other sponsors, according to the group’s president, Sergio Quieroz Santos, though he declined to name them. This pullback in support led to the organization laying off its last staff member a few months ago. He is now unsure if the group, which is now essentially all-volunteer, will even be able to keep on its two interns, and programming this year may be reduced.

“We used to be like, ‘Hey, let’s organize the event,’ we create the budget and execute,” Quieroz Santos said. “Now we really have to … find the cash and actually find the sponsors for it and justify those expenses.”

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

But the situation for Atlanta’s Pride celebrations is still fluid since Atlanta Black Pride’s festival is not until Labor Day weekend and Atlanta Pride is not until October. For Atlanta Pride, the country’s largest free Pride festival, many sponsors are returning this year, like Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola.

Sandy Springs-based UPS is not yet listed as a sponsor this year, as first reported by Popular Information, though it was listed as a partner at this point last year, according to an archived screenshot dated June 21, 2024, of Atlanta Pride’s site. After this story published online, a spokesperson for Atlanta Pride said UPS was not a sponsor in 2024 and that the screenshot of the Pride website at the time did not reflect an accurate list of sponsors. UPS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Atlanta Pride is aware of the broader conversations happening across the country about shifts in corporate sponsorship, particularly as LGBTQ+ and DEI initiatives face new scrutiny,” Steven Igarashi-Ball, Atlanta Pride’s director of communications and community engagement, said in a statement.

“Like many large-scale events, we experience some year-to-year changes in sponsor participation, and that’s not unusual. We’re actively engaged in conversations with a wide range of prospective sponsors. Since the Atlanta Pride Festival takes place in October, there is still time for many aspects, including financial commitments, to evolve,” he said.

But if Pride Month has shown nothing else, the LGBTQ community has demonstrated that despite political attacks and corporate pullback, it is resilient, and the celebrations will go on.

“Because now more than ever that we have to stand proud and we have to be loud,” Stewart said. “Our voices have to be heard through all of the murkiness, all of the rhetoric, all of the nonsense.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct a reference to UPS’ past sponsorship of Atlanta Pride.