(Maire Clayton, Headline USA) Major companies are pulling funding for the San Francisco Pride after President Donald Trump’s clampdown on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
Comcast, Anheuser-Busch, and alcoholic beverage company Diageo, which owns many popular brands, are just three of big sponsors that decided to stop giving money, according to KTVU.
Executive director of the event, Suzanne Ford, said they now have a loss of approximately $300,000.
“The overall budget goal is $2.3 million, and while we have nearly $1 million already committed, we now need to raise an additional $1.3 million to meet our target,” Ford told Fox News Digital. “We remain focused on securing the necessary funds and appreciate the continued support from our community and partners.”
The Trump administration has made it a mission to stop the unnecessary DEI programs. As a result, companies have started to remove the programs in mass.
Major companies like Amazon, McDonald’s, Pepsi and Target have scaled back or completely eliminated DEI protocols.
Ford also spoke with SFGATE and said the every company cited a lack of funds as the reason for pulling its sponsorship. However, Ford believes it is for political reasons.
“I just interpreted that companies are making decisions that at this time it’s not good to be sponsoring Pride,” Ford said. “I think in this political environment that they thought that was a risky decision.”
Wine company La Creme also pulled some of its funding, but said it still plans on being a part of it in some capacity.
“While we did inform [San Francisco Pride] that we wouldn’t be able to activate like we did the past few years and have our larger pop-up tasting room there more due to logistical reasons, but it was still our hope to partner and be part of the event in some capacity,” the company told KTVU.
San Francisco Pride is behind one of the largest pride festivals in the country with the event spanning two days and a parade that lasts roughly four hours.
