“We’re not stepping away from our support of the LGBTQ+ community,” Lubanski wrote in an email. She also noted that the wine industry is currently facing challenges and that the company is still supporting a host of other Pride events in California.
Earlier this month, Ford announced that San Francisco Pride would no longer partner with Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, after the company scrapped its DEI initiatives, altered some of its LGBTQ-friendly workplace policies, and changed its content moderation policies in a way that will encourage hostility towards LGBTQ people, including allowing users to call LGBTQ individuals “mentally ill” or “abnormal.”
At the time, Ford told ABC affiliate KGO-TV that San Francisco Pride would be severing ties with companies that are no longer aligned with the event’s values as a show of “resistance” in response to multiple anti-LGBTQ or anti-transgender actions by the Trump administration.
“Here in San Francisco, our community is celebrated, and we’re not going to stand for what we’re facing,” Ford said.
Ford told SFGATE that San Francisco Pride has budgeted $3.2 million for the festivities, which will take place on the weekend of June 28-29. Of that total amount, corporate sponsorships are intended to cover $2.3 million. With the withdrawal of support from Comcast and the alcohol companies, organizers now have a shortfall of $300,000.
Ford said that organizers would find a way to replace the money, most likely by soliciting private donations.
“We have no choice,” she said when asked if all festivities would continue as planned. “There are too many people depending on us. We will find a way to find the funds.”
SUBSCRIBE OUR FREE WEEKLY MAGAZINE
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source link
