June 1 marked the beginning of Pride—a month-long celebration of the LGBTQ+ community. But what has previously been a procession of rainbow-themed websites and company statements looks a bit different this year, as a chillier atmosphere for corporate DEI initiatives has led to a pull back on corporate-sponsored celebrations across the country.
Some leaders in the LGBTQ+ advocacy space, however, believe that DEI rollbacks have been greatly exaggerated. Sarah Kate Ellis, CEO of GLAAD, acknowledges that corporate CEOs have had to rethink the role of DEI in their companies, especially as the Trump administration has targeted those policies in the private sector. But she also thinks that many companies have stayed the course even if they stopped using standard terminology.
Ellis sat down with Fortune to discuss the state of corporate Pride sponsorships in 2025, the biggest concerns of LGBTQ+ workers, and why she’s still optimistic about the future.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
We’ve seen major corporations shift away from sponsoring Pride amid a larger DEI rollback. What do you make of this?
Sarah Kate Ellis: My take is that actually corporations aren’t really shifting that much away. If you see the corporate pressures on them financially, for their shareholders, on tariffs and all the other trade wars that are happening, I think that they have other, much bigger fish to fry.
I think that the current administration has targeted companies because of DEI and therefore companies have had to get smarter about how they market themselves so that they can attract new consumers and the best of the best employees.
This is a media story, not a real story, right? Everybody keeps wanting to talk about how corporations have pulled away when it hasn’t been that dramatic. Considering all of the financial pressures on them, it’s actually outstanding how many haven’t.
Corporate growth strategy is targeting LGBTQ people as our community continues to grow, especially in the Gen Z segment. I haven’t seen a big pullback. We saw over 100 brands visibly posting [for Pride Month]. Americans are all for companies supporting Pride by a super majority.
What have you heard from corporate CEOs regarding DEI rollbacks?
CEOs of the biggest companies in the world are not walking away from DEI. They’re changing the name because it’s just putting a target on [their] back.
I think that over the long term, it’s going to have a much more positive effect for us. As opposed to having standalone DEI [departments] that can be targeted, it’s now being integrated and threaded through all of the business practices across the companies, which has always been our dream. I think they’re actually helping us along in a lot of ways that aren’t exactly crystal clear right now, because it’s not so easy to see.
Companies have to protect themselves. Their drive is capitalism, and some moral compass, but I always count on capitalism before anything else. I’m a realist, and I know what society we live and operate in, and so utilizing those tools within the society, it is crystal clear that these companies have to focus on LGBTQ and Black and brown communities, or they don’t have a growth plan, from a consumer segment and an employee base.
Are you finding that corporate leaders are fearful to speak up against the administration?
They definitely don’t want to be targeted by this administration.
Fear is a very strong word, because I think these folks have pretty large egos to make it to [become] CEOs of some of these big companies, and they just want to be smart about it.
If the word “DEI” has been weaponized, and people don’t actually understand what it is, then [leaders will] just move on from that. Go ahead, have the word or the acronym DEI, and we’ll do the work. So that’s the attitude that I’m seeing a lot of, and the conversations that I’m having. Obviously, we’re working in a capitalist society, and companies are driven by their bottom line and their shareholders, they are still held by their stakeholders. And you’re seeing that in Target.
Target built its brand on being inclusive, so when they pull back on that, they’re pulling back on their entire brand value. Whereas Walmart’s brand value is cost, right? You’re going to get the cheapest thing. So when they pull back on DEI, they aren’t going to get the same backlash, because it’s never been their brand value proposition.
What do you think are the biggest concerns of LGBTQ+ workers right now?
I think they are bigger than just work life. We know how precious our equality is, and that it’s actually not full equality in this country. We’re not seen as full citizens. We don’t have full equality, but we’re already seeing and hearing the rhetoric about rollbacks to what we have achieved. I think that’s the overarching worry of our community.
We’ve seen such an enormous uptick in violence; our alert desk that tracks violence against our community has reported nearly 1,000 incidents a year. That’s 2.5 a day. So I think what workers are really looking for is safety at work. Feeling like they can be safe in a space is probably the number one priority, because everything else falls second if you’re not safe.
As a leader, what is motivating you right now?
This is an enormous opportunity. We wouldn’t be having this backlash if we hadn’t made so much progress, and the numbers are behind us. Our families are behind us, our coworkers are behind us, and so we’re going to make progress again. This is a crisis moment for our community, and there will be great change coming out of it. And we’re mobilizing, we’re organizing, and I think it always takes a step back to make a leap forward.
