Pride & Prejudice: 'Trump effect' hits Europe's LGBTQ marches as sponsors pull out

Some say sponsorship is down by 50% in 2025.

Berlin: Spooked by President Donald Trump's crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), some corporate sponsors have shunned Pride marches across the United States this year, and European LGBTQ+ campaigners say they are also taking a hit.

Pride organisers from Greece and Bulgaria, to Estonia and Denmark told the Thomson Reuters Foundation they had also lost financial support, at a time when LGBTQ+ rights are increasingly under attack across the continent.

"This year has been more difficult than usual as many major businesses have chosen to pull back from Pride," said Benjamin Hansen, chairperson of Copenhagen Pride.

In Athens, campaigners said they had lost about 30 per cent of their sponsorship revenue.

"We are deeply concerned about what this means for LGBTQI+ communities in Europe, not just this year, but in the years to come," said Amalia Marketou, communications officer at Athens Pride.

She said support from sponsors helped make Pride events more inclusive and accessible, often covering transport costs for marginalised groups, and wider outreach.

Organisers of Berlin's Pride march, also known as Christopher Street Day (CSD), said in April the budget was 200,000 euros ($228,660) short. Counterparts in Cologne and Munich have voiced similar concerns.

"We can certainly speak of a 'Trump effect' - as part of a global culture war against minority rights," said Marcel Voges, a board member at CSD.

Across the United States, Pride organisers have reported hundreds of thousands of dollars of losses after corporate sponsors pulled out of LGBTQ+ events in the wake of Trump's criticism of DEI policies.

Some say sponsorship is down by 50 per cent in 2025.

According to an April survey of 200 corporate executives, 39 per cent of companies planned to reduce their Pride engagement this year, while 61 per cent of respondents cited the Trump administration as the top reason to rethink Pride strategies.

The loss of corporate support comes at a time when Pride organisers are also facing increased security costs, said Conrad Breyer, spokesman at Munich's CSD. Last year, far-right groups tried to disrupt LGBTQ+ marches in Berlin and Leipzig.

Companies are not the only ones withdrawing their money.

"We were supposed to get some support from the US embassy, but that was withdrawn," said Eeva Koplimets from the Estonian LGBT Association.

In the past, the United States has actively supported Pride events in the Baltics.

"In compliance with Trump administration policies, American tax dollars will not be funding Pride events abroad," the US State Department told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Trump's war on DEI hits Europe

In January, Trump signed executive orders to terminate federal government DEI programmes, calling them illegal and "wasteful", and threatened to investigate firms using them.

Companies including Google, Target and McDonald's have since publicly dropped or altered DEI policies.

The Trump administration has also warned suppliers to US embassies and consulates that they must comply with the DEI ban or risk losing business.

Officials in Spain, France, Belgium, Denmark and Sweden have criticised the move.

Yet the impact of Trump's war on DEI is already being felt by businesses across the Atlantic, according to the European Pride Business Network (EPBN), an umbrella organisation working to engage companies in LGBTQ+ inclusion.

"Some companies are becoming more cautious due to political polarisation and pressure from the far-right, especially those influenced by US 'culture wars'," said Matthias Weber, EPBN's chairman.

Apostolis Karabairis, director of Thessaloniki Pride in Greece's second-biggest city, said some sponsors said they had lower budgets this year and wanted "less broad visibility".

Uncertainty about the future

The loss of corporate support comes as LGBTQ+ people are increasingly being targeted, from Hungary's ban on Pride marches to the growing calls to restrict the rights of trans people, to Bulgaria's Russian-style law banning LGBTQ+ "propaganda".

"I'm not just worried, I'm genuinely frightened about what the next four years could mean for smaller Prides like Sofia Pride," said Simeon Vasilev, chairman of the Bulgarian LGBTQ+ group GLAS Foundation.

In Bulgaria's capital, Pride organisers have lost 50% of their funding this year, compared to last year.

"Without vocal political backing, I fear we won't be able to make meaningful progress on issues like marriage equality or trans rights," Vasilev said. "Worse, we risk losing hard-won ground. This could take us years backward."

Some Pride marches have not been affected by the funding drop - notably in Oslo, Madrid and Brussels - and other organisers hope that since many Pride events in Europe take place in July and August, they can still close the gap.

"Raising funds has clearly become more challenging, and it requires more time and effort this year," said Lenka Bartova, head of fundraising at Prague Pride, whose sponsorship revenue is currently about 15,000 euros lower this year than last year.

Berlin's CSD is asking supporters to donate money to make up for the drop in sponsorship.

"While right-wing and anti-queer forces gain influence across Europe, what is needed is the opposite: a clear sign of solidarity from business, politics and society," Voges said.

That is why some LGBTQ+ Germans like Felix, a 37-year-old designer living between Berlin and Frankfurt, are attending Pride this year with a renewed purpose.

"They want us to disappear, to make us invisible again," he said. "It's becoming more important now to be present and to be visible."

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