Anheuser-Busch has pulled its sponsorship of yet another Pride festival, this time in the company’s own hometown.
“We are devastated this year that our hometown brewer, Anheuser-Busch, has declined to sponsor PrideFest after more than 30 years of partnership,” festival organizer Pride St. Louis said in a March 25 press release. “At a time when many sponsors have already reduced their contributions, this decision is especially painful. We are saddened to lose such a historic supporter of the LGBTQIA+ comm.
According to the organization, the festival is now $150,000 short of last year’s funding total, thanks to the loss of the Bud Light parent company’s sponsorship and reductions in other sponsors’ contributions.
Pride St. Louis Director of Diversity, Inclusion, and Outreach Jordan Braxton told KMOV that representatives for the St. Louis headquartered beer company informed the organization of their decision over the phone.
“They decided after 30 years they would no longer sponsor our event,” Braxton said. “That hurt us very much because we are all homegrown here in St. Louis.”
The move comes after Anheuser-Busch withdrew its sponsorship of San Francisco’s 2025 Pride celebration earlier this month.
Braxton told KMOV that she sees the company’s decision as a direct result of the current administration’s efforts to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in both the federal government and the private sector.
“The president’s always talking about coming after people that disagree with him, and of course the DEI cuts are having a lot of effect,” she said.
Webster University marketing professor Eric Rhiney told KMOV that Anheuser-Busch’s “primary target market left a strong message that they’re not in support of social causes such as support for LGBTQ” with the backlash to a 2023 social media partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. After Mulvaney posted a short Instagram video promoting the beer brand, conservatives called for a boycott of the company, posting videos as they dumped out Bud Light cans and fired semiautomatic rifles at cases of the beer. Anheuser-Busch was widely criticized for its response to the anti-LGBTQ+ backlash, which included a statement from CEO Brendan Whitworth essentially apologizing for the partnership with Mulvaney and the company’s European CEO promising to never again speak out about “controversial” issues.
To make up for the loss of Anheuser-Busch’s sponsorship, Pride St. Louis has launched its #45for45 fundraising campaign, seeking community donations for its 45th annual festival.
Meanwhile, the owners of at least two local businesses have said they will no longer serve Anheuser-Busch products.
“To stand with our LGBTQIA+ community, we have decided to stop carrying all Anheuser-Busch products,” Rehab Bar and Grill owner Chad Fox told First Alert 4. “As a community, we have been continuously targeted in all aspects of our lives. While for many years corporations have, in some respects, led efforts in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the decision by Anheuser-Busch— a long-standing sponsor of St. Louis PrideFest—to end their sponsorship is yet another targeted attack on our LGBTQIA+ community.”
In a Facebook post, Greenfinch Theater and Dive’s owners said that while, as a small business, they cannot afford to simply dump their remaining stock of Anheuser-Busch products, they will donate 25% from sales of the company’s beers to local non-profit Metro Trans Umbrella Group. The bar is holding an April 4 event in an effort to sell off the last of its Anheuser-Busch brews.
(*) This Article is from an all homosexual newsource, which AltrightTV does NOT support. The reason this article is appearing here is to warn you. Anheuser-Busch stills supports homosexuality. Anheuser-Busch just wants your money back. Anheuser-Busch has shown their true colors.
* Original Article:
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/03/bud-light-owner-anheuser-busch-ends-support-for-hometown-pride-festivities/