Was Corporate Pride Support Ever Unconditional?

As a queer person who has spent years working in the agency world, I have a complicated relationship with the industry’s appetite for Pride. 

For a long time it meant the same brief landing on my desk sometime in the first quarter asking for a Pride logo lockup, a campaign that felt a little say vs. do, and usually very little conversation about what any of it actually stood for. I probably sat with that discomfort for longer than I should have, conflicted about helping brands perform their Pride story with profit as the primary objective. This year I was bracing for it, and then it didn’t quite come. My feeds were less saturated with rainbowwashing than I expected. And watching brands go silent these last two years only confirms what I was already thinking: the support was conditional all along.

The brick before the rainbow

Pride started as a protest at Stonewall, where Marsha P. Johnson, a Black trans woman who had spent her life being harassed, arrested, and erased, threw one of the first bricks. Brick-by-brick, that’s what the rainbow was built on.

What’s happening in Canada 

Right now, in Canada, 2SLGBTQIA+ people and trans and gender-diverse youth are having their rights legislated away. Alberta passed three laws targeting trans youth: a ban on gender-affirming healthcare for those under 16, a forced outing policy requiring parental consent before teachers can use a student’s chosen name or pronouns, and a sports ban restricting participation in women’s sports. When courts blocked them, the province invoked the notwithstanding clause to override the Charter. 

Saskatchewan used the same clause to shield its own forced outing law, a case that has now been appealed all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. 

“Love is love” was sort of OK when the conversation was about acceptance (but was it ever really?). Today, it’s about whether a kid can get medically necessary care, if a teacher can call a student by their name, or if people feel safe in their own communities. 

The Pullback Has a Price

Over the last two years, many brands made a calculated decision to step back. They trimmed the Pride budget, kept the logo neutral, and maybe hoped nobody would notice. 

In 2025, Google, Home Depot, Nissan, Adidas, and Clorox either ended or declined to renew their sponsorship agreements with Pride Toronto. The festival’s executive director described the organization as still feeling the financial aftershocks heading into 2026, with a funding gap estimated between $700,000 and $800,000. This comes as nearly 8 in 10 Canadians support same-sex marriage, equal adoption rights, and protection from discrimination in employment and housing, numbers that sit above the global average and have trended upward through 2025. 

People are paying attention, and they’re keeping the receipts. A June 2026 Harris Poll survey of nearly 5,000 U.S. adults found that 81% of LGBTQ+ consumers say brands have pulled back support over the past two years, 87% say they can tell when that support feels performative, and 77% say they would pay more for a brand that meaningfully shows up for the community. When a brand pulls back, 42% trust it less and 38% start looking for a replacement.

I know this is US data, but I imagine things aren’t too far off here in Canada.

Showing up in allyship as a brand

The brands that have earned trust with 2SLGBTQIA+ communities are the ones who are walking the talk, those whose external storytelling reflects something already true inside their organization. 

That means having intentional policies that cover 2SLGBTQIA+ employees, partnering with community voices before the brief, showing up all year, and being willing to hold their position when there’s pressure to back down. They align what they believe with how they behave, and they do that all year.

To my agency peers and the brands and organizations we work with: what do your internal policies look like for 2SLGBTQIA+ employees? Are you supporting organizations doing this work year-round, or just in June?

Some organizations doing this work year-round that deserve your attention and support:

• 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations: here in Toronto, offering culturally grounded programs, harm reduction, and community support for Two-Spirit and Indigenous Queer people.
• Egale Canada: doing the legal work to challenge unconstitutional legislation targeting 2SLGBTQIA+ people across Canada.
• Skipping Stone Foundation: on the ground supporting gender-diverse youth and their families.
• Friends of Ruby: right here in Toronto, offering mental health services, housing and drop-in support for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth aged 16 to 29.
• Anishnawbe Health Toronto: providing Indigenous-led primary care, mental health services, and dedicated Two-Spirit and Trans support
• Rainbow Railroad: Creates pathways to safety for at-risk LGBTQI+ people and strengthens policies and systems that support their protection and integration

How we show up right now matters. For some folks, it could be life or death.