Pride Toronto’s financial woes have deepened significantly with the unexpected exit of major corporate sponsors Google and Home Depot. This comes after Nissan, Adidas, and Clorox also withdrew their support, leaving the festival facing a substantial budgetary crisis just weeks before its annual celebration.
Kojo Modeste, executive director of Pride Toronto, directly attributed these withdrawals to Donald Trump’s ongoing campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. He described the notifications from Google and Home Depot as terse, one-line emails, highlighting the abruptness of their decisions.
The loss of these sponsorships is critical, as they are essential for covering staff salaries, compensating hundreds of local artists, and maintaining the festival’s free admission for its three million annual attendees. Modeste expressed deep concern about having to “drastically cut what the festival looks like for 2026,” a prospect that would severely impact the event.
Professor Sui Sui of Toronto Metropolitan University, an expert in DEI, affirms that the White House’s anti-DEI stance is creating a chilling effect on corporate support for LGBTQ+ events. She suggests that past corporate commitments may have been driven more by perceived profitability than genuine support, and the current environment is exposing the fragility of those alliances.
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