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XPost: alt.society.liberalism, or.politics

https://amac.us/newsline/society/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.


--
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump. We look
forward to America being great again.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.

Every day is an IQ test. Some pass, some, not so much.

Thank you for cleaning up the disasters of the 2008-2017, 2020-2024 Obama
/ Biden / Harris fiascos, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

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