Corporations won't save LGBTQ+ people. Take their money for Pride anyway. | Opinion
Every large company, regardless of its position on DEI, operates within systems that perpetuate harm in one way or another. This is not a time to stand on principle. Take the money.
Corporations are not our friends.
Despite their diverse casting in advertisements, the rainbow trinkets they proudly sell for $2, press releases on innovative DEI initiatives or how "brave" their hot takes on social issues are – corporations will not save us. They exist to sell us things. They exist to advertise their brand. They exist to maximize their profits.
And our job as queer leaders is not to be the morality police of who can or cannot sponsor pride or donate toward LGBTQ+ events and causes; our job is to grab that money and use it to support a community on the brink of being pummeled.
This is not a normal year. Federal funding for nonprofits supporting LGBTQ+, immigrant, people of color and other intersecting communities are under attack, as are our tax-exempt statuses. Economists are predicting massive layoffs. Libraries, museums, cultural spaces and health programs (which employ and serve countless LGBTQ+ individuals) are being defunded.
Trump administration has waged war on trans people
Our federal government has waged an egregious war on our trans family, and the Supreme Court recently heard a case that could dismantle all preventative care coverage, including access to PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis medicine that can help prevent the spread of HIV).
Here is the hard truth we have to reckon with in 2025: Every dollar counts more than ever if we want to keep LGBTQ+ people informed, healthy and alive.
There’s a commendable vision within the LGBTQ+ community to return to a time when we relied on mutual aid instead of corporate dollars. But like everything, it has a cost. In 2025, that cost is asking a community of people who are losing access to meds, about to lose their jobs and constantly under political attack to give even more.
The quiet truth is it would financially decimate our community if we were expected to take the already small amount of resources that we have and use them to replace hundreds of millions dollars in lost sponsorships, research and health care.
Most people can’t afford to donate to every fundraiser providing continuous access to gender-affirming care, send money to replace funding for the local trans services that lost their federal grant, give to all the GoFundMe's for everyone getting laid off this year, donate to support some research project still happening and still manage to support the normal fundraising needs our community has on whatever is left in their pockets between paydays.
We become stronger by bringing more resources into the fold, not recycling what we have over and over.
Pride events must take every dollar from any corporation
The truth is, no corporation is ever clean. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism.
Every large company ‒ regardless of its position on diversity, equity and inclusion ‒ operates within systems that perpetuate harm in one way or another. How is DEI the deal breaker for who can sponsor pride, but we'll turn a blind eye to a health insurance conglomerate with questionable tactics, companies that destroy the environment or banks supporting genocide?
In any other year, I would be asking you to throw them all out. Today I'm asking you to take all of their money.
This is my ask, if you’re running a pride festival or charity event, determine the minimum amount you need to make your event a reality, and build a regranting program to get excess funds to community resources under attack this year. This includes your local HIV clinic or programs providing gender-affirming care.
If your nonprofit receives corporate gifts or grants, continue to accept the gifts that keep your doors open. But here's the key: Promise corporations the bare minimum in return for their sponsorships.
Brainstorm with your team to reexamine what you offer your partners. Are there promotional aspects that could be tweaked, or partnerships toned down, so you are still offering something of value to the partner but it’s more authentic to the organization? A little wiggle room leads to big gains.
It's time to fight for our survival, not stand on principle
If these companies are willing to give us the bare minimum, in the form of a tax-deductible donation, we can afford to give them the bare minimum in return to keep our community stable. Use them to build our own mutual aid bank.
Take that dollar.
Because in six months or a year, we probably won’t have it. Our nonprofits might be starting to shut down. Services will likely be more strained or cut off completely. This is not a time to stand on principle about which funding sources are “pure.” It’s a time to rally, strategize and fight for survival. Every dollar we take and redirect to our community is a necessary, and perhaps fleeting, lifeline – using the advertising capital of a festival or a one-time event, to protect the health, safety and knowledge of our community.
To nonprofit leaders and community organizers reading this: Take the money. All of it. Use it to get more medicine, more stability and more resources into your communities. Raise it now so we have it tomorrow. Ask for more, too.
We’re not just fighting for the present; we’re fighting to preserve a future for LGBTQ+ communities everywhere. And that fight requires every dollar we can muster.
Missy Spears is the executive director of Queer Kentucky, the GLAAD-nominated media nonprofit that uses the power of storytelling to impact LGBTQ+ culture and health. In addition to her work with Queer Kentucky, Spears serves as the Board of Directors co-president for the Kentucky Civic Engagement Table, the cofounder of the COVunity Free Fridge Program, and sits on Community Advisory Boards for the Cincinnati Art Museum, media outlet WCPO, and University of Kentucky’s Center for Clinical and Translational Science. This column originally appeared in the Louisville Courier Journal.