The Bud Light boycott worked: Major corporations are walking away from LGBT pride

(LifeSiteNews) — Pride comes before a fall – and as some major companies rethink previous “woke” policies, the corporate gravy train LGBT activists have relied on to fund their activism has finally begun to slow. 

According to NPR, both Anheuser-Busch – famous for beer brands like Beck’s and Budweiser – and the telecoms giant Comcast have both pulled funding from San Francisco Pride. Anheuser-Busch has also ended their sponsorship with St. Louis Pride. 

They aren’t the only ones. Diageo, the beverage company responsible for Johnny Walker, Smirnoff, and Guinness has pulled support from San Francisco Pride, as has Jackson Family Wines (which includes La Crema Wines). Meta, the tech giant that includes both Facebook and Instagram, has also reportedly pulled funding from San Francisco Pride. 

READ: Anheuser-Busch drops sponsorship of St. Louis, San Francisco LGBT ‘pride’ events 

Significantly, a number of those companies have been attempting to distance themselves from wokeness after spending years wrapping themselves in the rainbow flag. Mark Zuckerberg of Meta announced earlier this year that he was reintroducing free speech to Meta’s social media platforms and began by removing many of the restrictions around LGBT debates (and had the tampon dispensers removed from the male washrooms at Facebook’s headquarters). 

Anheuser-Busch, famously, has been desperately attempting to regain their customer base after they made the near-fatal mistake of choosing Dylan Mulvaney, a trans-identifying gay man, as one of their brand ambassadors, featuring his face on a beer can. After Mulvaney posted photos of himself dressed as a woman with five cans of Bud Light outraged conservatives launched the most successful boycott in recent memory – which resulted in a loss of a whopping $1.4 billion. 

To counter the losses and staunch the fiscal bleeding, Anheuser-Busch embarked on a hard pivot, releasing an All-American ad of an iconic Clydesdale galloping through rugged landscapes and men hoisting a few beers and hiring good ol’ boy comedian Shane Gillis as a new brand ambassador. Apparently, the execs at the beer company decided that after the Dylan Mulvaney disaster, sponsoring a parade that prominently features adult nudity around children might not be a great idea.  

As NPR noted, these moves are already hurting LGBT events. “These withdrawals have contributed to significant funding shortfalls, such as a reported $300,000 deficit for San Francisco Pride’s 2025 event,” NPR reported. “The trend suggests a broader shift among some corporations reevaluating their support for LGBTQ Pride celebrations, though specific reasons for each decision vary and are not fully detailed in the available data.” 

LGBT activists are attempting to organize a counter-boycott, as well as making their displeasure loudly known to their reliable allies in the media. Several St. Louis businesses announced that they would be boycotting Anheuser-Busch in retaliation for the beer company ending its 30-year-sponsorship of PrideFest. 

“That’s a really active decision, especially in today’s political climate where so many traditionally marginalized communities are seeing protections they have being challenged,” said business owner Bradley Rohlf. “We’re sitting here like: ‘Well, our friends are gay, and we love them. So we’re not going to support this company.’” 

READ: Utah becomes first state to ban LGBT ‘pride’ flags in government buildings, public schools 

Marty Zuniga, president of Pride St. Louis, concurred. “The fact that Anheuser-Busch took their support away from us 30 years later and [during] the time when we need them the most is the most devastating part,” he told NPR. “That’s the part that stings. We are your local community. This is a homegrown beer. This is a homegrown beverage. We’re your homegrown Pride.” 

“They’re giving in to louder voices who speak loudly about homophobia and thinking that is going to affect their bottom line,” said Kenny Marks, who identifies as transgender. “When it was like cool and trendy to be in the political environment – to be supportive – they had no problem, but the moment it turns … it just shows that it wasn’t even about the queer community to begin with. Boycotting is the root of change. You might have just that person who stops buying it, too, and it is going to make a dent.” 

What is significant about these major companies pulling sponsorship, however, is that they were clearly anticipating this reaction. Corporate leaders are well aware of how the rainbow mafia functions (“nice little business you’ve got there, it’d be a shame if something happened to it”), but have clearly weighed the costs and decided that they’d rather pay the price of pulling their funding than the potential price of another normie boycott. 

It is too early to tell if this is indicative of a larger corporate exodus, but it is a good start – and another indication that when social conservatives vote with their wallets, they can make big companies rethink their priorities.