Parade participants are seen marching during the 2024 Kentuckiana Pride Parade on June 15, 2024 in Louisville, Kentucky. Stephen J. Cohen | Getty Images Pride month is winding down — and this year, the corporate world took a more cautious approach.
June tends to bring a wave of rainbow-themed merchandise and affirming ads and social media posts from retailers and consumers brands, coinciding with parades and other events that celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. As the presidential election approaches, however, some companies have grown quieter about diversity, equity and inclusion efforts to avoid stepping into the culture wars or facing the blowback from conservative customers that Target and Bud Light did a year ago. The starkest example of that came late Thursday: Tractor Supply, a retailer that sells animal feed, cowboy boots and lawn supplies in rural parts of the country, said it is ending all spending tied to diversity and environmental causes.
That includes no longer sponsoring Pride festivals, the statement said. The move, while an outlier in its magnitude, underscores how some companies that made inclusion commitments in recent years are treading cautiously. It is difficult to track how many companies shared supportive messages, donated to LGBTQ+ causes or sold rainbow-themed merchandise in June compared to previous years.
According to Gravity Research, a Washington, D.C.-based reputational research firm, 45% of Fortune 100 companies had at least one social media post.
