San Francisco Pride sees signs of hope as corporate sponsors return

Several Pride organizations lamented the consequences of the Trump administration’s DEI crackdown in 2025, as corporate sponsors and employee resource groups backed out of parades they had participated in for over a decade.

One year later, some Pride parades are continuing to face hurdles. But it appears that others are seeing signs of hope.

Susanne Ford, executive director of San Francisco Pride, told HR Brew that while the organization’s parade lost several corporate sponsors in 2025, it’s only lost one—Starbucks—so far this year; others have increased their sponsorship.

“We didn’t lose as many [sponsors] as we thought we were going to last year,” she said. “Last year, when we came out of it, we were behind…I think if we have a well-attended Pride and our ticket sales can increase a little bit, I think we might walk out on the other side of this better.”

Starbucks said the support it extends to Pride initiatives in the regions in which it operates depends on input from its LGBTQIA2+ ERG. “This year, Starbucks partners in San Francisco will serve beverages to parade volunteers, and we’ll participate in Pride celebrations in Dallas, Los Angeles, Nashville, and our hometown of Seattle,” Betsy McManus, director of strategic communications at Starbucks, told HR Brew via email. “Across the country, partners have opportunities to support local Pride programming through their local Pride Network chapters.”

Ford acknowledged the challenges that the LGBTQ+ community has faced due to legislation in various states, as well as orders from the EEOC, Department of Labor, and Trump administration overall. But she said she feels encouraged that SF Pride is once again being supported by large employers, including Kaiser Permanente, Gilead Sciences, Apple, and Target.

“There’s still plenty of bad things happening, but I do think that some companies are realizing that they don’t have those [Trump administration’s] values, that they do value their queer employees, and that they have lots of them,” she said.

Target, which saw intense scrutiny last year after it publicly distanced itself from DEI and removed Pride merchandise from some stores in 2024, is supporting SF Pride again this year as part of its wider corporate inclusion efforts.

“As we have for many years, we will continue to mark Pride Month by sponsoring local events in neighborhoods across the country, curating an assortment of products and hosting internal programming to support our team,” Lauren Frank, a spokesperson for Target, told HR Brew in a statement via email.

Looking ahead, Ford said she hopes to see more employers support the LGBTQ+ community in ways beyond parade sponsorship. Employers, for example, can do more to support trans employees, she said.

“There are some corporations out there that are doing the right thing in that respect, but we have to be visible,” she said, adding that many companies have trans employees, and should highlight them more frequently. “They should be doing that, because almost all of them have really talented trans people that are in their ranks.”