Pride Is Under Pressure but Brands Should Stand Firm

As a queer man I want to start this article by saying what a privilege that is. It’s given me a different perspective, opened up incredible experiences, linked me up to a loving community, shown me true love and total happiness. So writing this piece comes from the heart as it's an important piece to get out and share. June is the month of Pride, a month to reflect and celebrate the diversity of humanity.

So on that, doesn't it sound astonishing to be saying this in 2025, but the Pride movement is in jeopardy.

Last week Hungary became the first EU country to enable the banning of a Pride event, after an amendment to its constitution that allows public LGBTQ+ events to be designated a 'threat' to children. Participants risk being fined if they turn up.

It’s an attitude that we’re seeing echoed across the world as right-wing and populist leaders sweep to power. Not just in the US, where brands that were long time supporters of Pride, like Mastercard, PepsiCo and Comcast, are dialling down their involvement in the wake of the Trump administration’s clampdown on all things DEI.

Closer to home, in Ireland, Indeed has pulled out of its Dublin Pride sponsorship amid other corporate withdrawals. Even here in the UK we are not immune; Reform has been pulling down Pride flags from council buildings in Durham after taking control of the council there. And that comes in the wake of other changes that swing the pendulum away from DEI; the Supreme Court ruling on transgender people, for example.

In fact, a recent study by ILGA-Europe, an international human rights group, found the UK has become less friendly towards LBGTQ+ people for the 10th year in a row, and now falls behind countries like Belgium, Iceland and Malta. With the rise of Reform and with other countries electing right wing leaders (Poland is the latest, electing the right-wing historian Karol Nawrocki this week) there are chill winds blowing towards the Pride movement.

So how do I, as a creative and agency co-founder, advise the brands I work for? First of all I strongly believe that we should always remember to ask ourselves, what kind of world do we want to live in? And what kind of world do we want to hand over to the next generation? We’ve made so much progress over the past decades and people have fought so hard for some of these freedoms that it’s heart breaking to watch all that going backwards.

But setting aside the emotional questions, and the (completely valid) arguments about human decency and moral courage, we should continue to make the case that Pride is good for business. The younger generations overwhelmingly support LGBTQ+ efforts and a recent study from Globescan found that 67% of Americans want CEOs to defend DEI initiatives, no matter what their politics.

Those sorts of figures make it easy for agencies to argue the case for inclusive storytelling and support for causes like Pride; but even so we must advise our clients to be consistent. That’s been said before but it’s particularly key now that so many companies are quietly dialling down on other diversity efforts.

There’s no point slapping a Pride flag on your products for the month of June if your company has quietly dropped its DEI policy or has decided not to use pronouns in emails any more. If you’re going to put out an ad featuring blended families, you need to make sure you have policies in place as an employer to support those families (for example, supporting those who need to take time off for fertility treatment).

In all honesty, this support shouldn’t be about marketing; it should be at the heart of the business and coming from the very top of the company. Half-hearted support for purpose-related causes is arguably to blame for some of the backlash that we’re currently seeing.

But above all I strongly believe that brands should have more faith in their own abilities to change culture and change narratives, rather than blowing with the prevailing winds of politics. It’s heartening to see that a platform like Pinterest realises this; if anything, it has dialled up support for LGBTQ+ in the face of other tech brands such as Meta that have rolled it right back.

Business has a voice and we have a responsibility to use it; by keeping quiet, or dialling things back we are affecting the lives of so many people.

After all politicians come and go – but brands are with us forever.