• by Danielle Oster , March 25, 2025

For over thirty years, St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch has been a corporate sponsor for St. Louis PrideFest, but the Budweiser brewer will not be supporting the city’s annual LGBTQIA+ festival and parade this year. The decision, along with reduced support from other sponsors, has left organizers scrambling to make up for the impact of the lost financial support – which has resulted in a deficit of some $150,000 compared to last year’s funding.

“We are devastated this year that our hometown brewer, Anheuser-Busch, has declined to sponsor PrideFest after more than 30 years of partnership. At a time when many sponsors have already reduced their contributions, this decision is especially painful,” St. Louis Pride, the nonprofit which organizes the event, wrote in a statement, March 25. “We are saddened to lose such a historic supporter of the LGBTQIA+ community in St. Louis.”

The brewer had been a sponsor for over two-thirds of the event’s history. St. Louis PrideFest began in 1980 as the St. Louis Gay and Lesbian Pride Celebration, and is celebrated annually during the last full weekend of June.

Anheuser-Busch and parent company AB InBev  did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“For them to walk away from the table in negotiations, simply to note tha, ‘we just don’t see the value in it anymore,’ it’s like a bad breakup,” Pride St. Louis President Marty Zuniga told St. Louis Public Radio.

“In addition to the loss of Anheuser-Busch, funding has been coming in well below expectations, and we are currently over $150,000 short of last year’s total,” St. Louis Pride wrote in its statement announcing the news. “The Board of Directors is actively working to modify the budget where applicable while ensuring a safe, engaging, and spectacular PrideFest for all, and we are calling on the community to help bridge this gap.”

The group launched a “#45for45” campaign calling on people to donate $45 or more, and has already raised over $17,000, Zuniga told St. Louis Public Radio.

“The #45for45 campaign is an opportunity for everyone, whether you’ve marched in the parade, attended our events, or simply believe in equality, to help ensure that these efforts continue for years to come,” Zuniga wrote in a statement. “The community and our board are clear: Cancelling PrideFest is not an option.”

Anheuser-Busch has also withdrawn its sponsorship support for the San Francisco Pride event. San Francisco Pride Executive Director Suzanne Ford told NPR on March 24 that Anheuser Busch, as well as longtime sponsors Comcast and Diageo, were no longer sponsoring the event -- one of the world’s largest Pride celebrations. Diageo told NPR it had adjusted its sponsorship budgets but was still sponsoring a smaller Pride event in Long Beach, California.

Back in the spring of 2023, Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light faced boycott calls from far right anti-trans extremist influencers and celebrities, as part of a transmisogynist hate campaign aimed at the brand and transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, over the brand partnering with her on a single social media post.

More recently, the new administration threatened private companies with “investigations” and withholding of federal funding or contracts for those who violated an executive order aimed at shuttering DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility) practices.

“We’re still proud. We started 45 years ago as a protest, and now it’s a parade,” Zuniga told St. Louis Public Radio “Maybe we need to protest again this year and take it back to what it started with, to remind people of why we’re where we are today and to make sure we don’t go back.”