Pride Toronto in Dire Straits: Google, Home Depot Join Sponsor Mass Exodus

Pride Toronto finds itself in dire straits as Google and Home Depot have joined a mass exodus of corporate sponsors, leaving the festival grappling with severe financial difficulties. Organizers are directly attributing these withdrawals to Donald Trump’s aggressive campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
Kojo Modeste, executive director of Pride Toronto, described the notifications from Google and Home Depot as abrupt and concise, received in brief email messages. The loss of these substantial financial contributions poses a critical threat to the festival’s ability to cover essential operational costs, including staff salaries, payments to hundreds of local artists, and maintaining its free admission for three million annual attendees.
Modeste’s concern for the festival’s long-term sustainability is profound. He voiced deep worry about the potential need to “drastically cut what the festival looks like for 2026,” a decision that would significantly reduce the scale and accessibility of this vital community celebration and potentially exclude many participants.
Professor Sui Sui of Toronto Metropolitan University, a specialist in DEI initiatives, provides academic context for these corporate shifts. She suggests that the White House’s persistent condemnation of diversity efforts is creating an environment where companies are less willing to openly support LGBTQ+ events, revealing the conditional nature of some past corporate alignments.