Pride Toronto finds itself under siege as corporate backing crumbles, with major sponsors Google and Home Depot joining Nissan, Adidas, and Clorox in withdrawing support. Organizers are squarely blaming a broader anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) pressure campaign for the severe financial blow.
Kojo Modeste, the executive director, described the brief, one-line emails from Google and Home Depot as emblematic of their abrupt disengagement. The loss of these substantial sponsorships directly jeopardizes the festival’s ability to cover essential operational costs, including paying staff, compensating hundreds of local artists, and maintaining its free admission policy for three million annual attendees.
Modeste’s concern for the festival’s long-term sustainability is palpable. He expressed profound worry about the potential need to “drastically cut what the festival looks like for 2026,” a decision that would significantly reduce the scale and accessibility of this vital community celebration.
Professor Sui Sui of Toronto Metropolitan University, whose research focuses on DEI, provides academic context for these corporate shifts. She argues that the White House’s strong condemnation of diversity efforts is creating an environment where companies are less willing to openly support LGBTQ+ events, revealing the conditional nature of some past corporate alignments.