Pride in the CLE is going strong this weekend despite a national wave of divestment from past corporate sponsors that have forced cities to either slim down Pride events or cancel them altogether.
Pride marches and fests were slashed in Tampa and Tuscon, while those in New York City, San Francisco, St. Louis and Pittsburgh are managing on shoestring budgets after companies across the country have taken steps back from financial support. Those involved largely cite the Trump administration’s attacks on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies as the reason that corporations that used to issue big checks —Anheuser-Busch, Comcast, Accenture, Nissan and PepsiCo, for example — have gone silent this year.
Phyllis Harris, the director of the LBGT Center of Greater Cleveland, which hosts Pride in the CLE, saw this coming back in January, when she and the organization began fundraising for their June event on Mall C.
“We immediately noticed a slowing of response,” Harris told Scene. “So, we began to do other things and think about other ways to raise money.”
Harris and her team focused on asks to donors. For the first time in a decade, they raised vendor fees, by about $50.
“The chilling effect is real,” Harris said. “The impact is real.”
Pride in the CLE costs roughly a half million dollars to put on each year, according to its website.
By early June, about 100 sponsors signed on to contribute a total of about $263,000.
“Definitely less,” Harris said, than in years past.
A series of executive orders from Trump have caused worry and organization pivots at major companies and public universities. Many have backtracked from previous support of Pride events and LGBTQ events fearing allegiance could cost them grants or revenue. Last year, both Case Western and Kent State cut their LGBTQ centers.
In Ohio, several towns have had to pass on celebrating Pride due to major funding shortfalls or lack of help. That includes Ashtabula and Upper Sandusky, where Pride groups struggled to wrangle in sponsor dollars or enough volunteers.
In Upper Sandusky, which had its first Pride fest last year, Brittany Rayl and her boyfriend Brian Webb called the town’s festival off this year after securing just a quarter of the money needed to host the celebration in Harrison Smith Park.
It wasn’t just money. Only nine vendors, including drag performers and food trucks, signed on to participate. And some 30 volunteer spots needed to be filled. “And we only got two,” Rayl said.
“I was thinking we’d have more than that,” she said. “I’ve been just as puzzled as anyone else as to where the momentum went.”
Becke Powell, who runs Ashtabula Pride and had to cancel it this year, was a lot more clear as for the reason behind the exodus.
“Because of the large DEI wave of last year our bigger sponsors had to pull out,” she wrote in an email. “Supporting Pride or any other DEI initiative would’ve cost them their own funding cuts.”
As for Cleveland’s Pride, any funding issues won’t be visible to the public, Harris said. There will be loads of entertainment across two stages, including three DJs, 20 artists, dancers, drag queens and musicians. There will still be jewelry to buy, hulas to hoop, and flags to wave.
All because of supporters that, despite the national scare, have decided to still give money to make Pride an ongoing reality.
Even those that insisted to Harris their names not be made public.
“We’ve experienced ghosting of some corporations. We’ve experienced corporations shifting from being visible to being less visible” and giving anonymously, she said. “And we’ve also experienced the impact of people understanding what it takes to produce this event and then chipping in.”
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