As two Utah LGBTQ+ nonprofits — SLCPride and the Utah Pride Center — gear up for their pride month festivities, Utahns may notice that both events are scaled back this year.
Bonnie O’Brien, the festival director of SLCPride, a grassroots Pride festival, said that even though the group posted a profit in its inaugural year, their goal remains the same, “to break even.”
Accomplishing that goal in 2025, though, is becoming a bit more tricky.
The Trump administration has issued executive orders pulling back on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, and corporations and businesses have reacted accordingly. In the case of SLCPride and the Utah Pride Festival, it means less sponsorship money and tighter budgets.
“From a state and a national level, we’re getting laws and restrictions that are impacting how Pride has traditionally happened,” Chad Call, executive director of the Utah Pride Center, said. “Major companies have stripped away a lot of funding that has traditionally made its way to the Pride Center.”
In 2024, SLCPride had a slew of inaugural donors. This year, according to data shared with The Salt Lake Tribune, SLCPride will have nine returning sponsors from 2024.
According to O’Brien, five organizations who sponsored last year’s event declined to do so this year after pulling back on DEI initiatives, including large corporations like Walmart, Lowe’s and Citibank, as well as the University of Utah and Utah Valley University, who pulled back on DEI efforts after an anti-DEI bill was signed into state law in 2024, but didn’t go into effect until July.
Read more at sltrib.com
This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.