Amid DEI rollback, Seattle Pride events see corporate sponsors pull back

Seattle Pride and other LGBTQ+ groups in the city have lost significant funding as corporate sponsors — including some that have backed celebrations for years — have scaled back their financial support.

Seattle Pride, which organizes the annual Seattle Pride Parade downtown and Seattle Pride in the Park at Volunteer Park, is projecting a $350,000 budget shortfall this year because of the loss of corporate sponsorships. That amounts to nearly a quarter of the organization’s annual operating budget, said Executive Director Patti Hearn.

Hearn said the retreat in financial commitments by major corporate sponsors is a sign big-name companies may be following the lead of the Trump administration, which has launched a sweeping campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and the LGBTQ+ community, particularly transgender people.

“It’s a really rough world for queer people,” Hearn said, “and this just feels like it’s part of that package.”

It’s not yet set in stone which companies are pulling back financial support for Seattle Pride this year. Hearn declined to name which corporations have not already re-upped their sponsorship of the annual event, saying her team is “still in some conversation” with businesses before the mid-May deadline to finalize agreements.

“Typically, we’d have a lot more companies who’d sign on the dotted line much earlier than the deadline,” Hearn said. “What we’re seeing is a bit of uncertainty.”

While the shortfall will not result in changes to this year’s events, Hearn said, festivities in 2026 may look different if the funding gap is not filled. She said the organization is seeking individual donations and grants and will start hosting fundraising events regularly.

Seattle PrideFest, which hosts celebrations on Capitol Hill and at the Seattle Center on the last weekend of June, has also experienced a shrinking in the number of corporate sponsors, said Egan Orion, the group’s executive director.

The organization has lost about a third of corporate sponsorship funding compared with last year, or about $75,000 as of this month, Orion said. Seattle PrideFest has launched a GoFundMe page to cover the group’s security and talent budget. Orion also declined to name the companies that have not returned to sponsor events this year.

Seattle PrideFest had considered scaling back this year’s events because of the shortfall, Orion said, but ultimately decided it ran counter to the celebration theme of MORE RAINBOW, which has been “a guiding force” for organizers. The group had planned for expanded programming this year, he said, and will continue to push ahead despite the funding challenges.

“There are folks out there that would like the LGBTQIA+ community to go away and go back into the closet, and we’re not interested in that,” Orion said. “We think more color, more diversity, bigger and better events for the community is what’s needed in this moment.”

Trans Pride Seattle, which will be held at Volunteer Park on June 27 and is organized by the civil rights group Gender Justice League, does not accept money from corporate sponsors. The group limits sponsorships to “Trans-affirming nonprofits, unions, and local small businesses with strong histories of nondiscrimination, as well as employee resource groups.”

President Donald Trump rolled back the Biden administration’s push to advance equity in the federal government on his first day in office, signing an executive order calling DEI-related activities “illegal and immoral discrimination programs.” The Trump administration has threatened legal action and political roadblocks against companies that fail to fall in line with its agenda.

Since then, several prominent Seattle-area employers — including some that have previously backed Pride events in Seattle — have shifted away from or watered down references to policies, pledges and programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion. Amazon, Starbucks and T-Mobile are among them.

But the retreat from DEI initiatives may not fully explain why some companies have decided to step away from sponsoring Pride events, Orion said. “It’s a real mixed picture,” he said.

Some businesses, especially smaller local ones, say they have pulled back because of limited budgets amid fears of a recession driven by the Trump administration’s tariff policy, Hearn said. Meanwhile, some corporate sponsors, like Alaska Airlines, have agreed to continue financially supporting Seattle Pride this year, Hearn said.

Adding confusion is the decision by some companies to pull out of some, but not all, Pride events. Smirnoff, for example, will still sponsor Seattle PrideFest this year, but its parent company Diageo is no longer sponsoring San Francisco Pride. Orion said a few companies have told organizers that federal funding cuts have also hampered sponsorship efforts.

What’s most troubling is not the loss in funding, Hearn said, but “the intent behind it.” For about two decades, corporations have been increasingly open to — and actively seeking to — have their brand associated with Pride events, she said.

“If companies that are pulling out are doing so because they have made changes in values, … was it true that you supported queer values and queer people?” Hearn said. “Or did you not support it, and supported it for other (financial) reasons, and now you don’t have to?”

Pride event organizers across the country have faced a similar contracting of corporate sponsors.