Pride is for the people, but what happens when it’s taken over by corporate sponsors with opposing values? That’s the question being asked by Taking Back Pride (TBP), a coalition fighting against the corporatization of Twin Cities Pride (TCP)—and they have an answer: The group is demanding the event divest from its corporate sponsors, as well as police presence, for the 10th year in a row.
Twin Cities Pride’s corporate sponsors
At a Wednesday press conference, Taking Back Pride pointed out that Twin Cities Pride has a litany of corporate sponsors, including Delta, Blue Cross Blue Shield, US Bank, Wells Fargo, 3M, and so many more. The event’s biggest donor used to be Target, a Minneapolis-based company, but that quickly changed after the store rolled back its DEI efforts last year. While TCP was quick to drop Target, TBP leaders argue that this decision was only made in response to heightened public pressure.
Jae Yates with Twin Cities Coalition for Justice shared that they have met with the TC Pride board before, and blamed their continued partnership with corporate sponsors on “a lack of will.” “I think that doing actual research into who’s funding your festival takes work that they’re maybe not interested in doing,,” they added.
Other leaders of local activist organizations shared similar concerns and outlined how a number of the event’s biggest sponsors seemingly do not align with Pride’s roots in community protest. Twin Cities Pride did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
3M
Steff Yorek with the Climate Justice Committee (CJC) says 3M has “poisoned Minnesota’s waters while knowingly hiding the threat of PFAs, or forever chemicals.” The state has recently sued the company because of these allegations. Yorek also notes that 3M’s PAC has sponsored Republican candidates like Pete Stauber, Brad Finstad, and Tom Emmer, all politicians who voted to overturn the mining ban in the BWCA.
Delta
Delta’s involvement in Operation Metro Surge was also criticized during the press conference. It was the airline that brought Liam Ramos to ICE detention in Texas, and Aizar Cabrera with Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) says it “operated flights for federal agents to transport detainees, so they’re basically making money by helping to separate families.”
Nick Benson with the grassroots group MN50501 argued that Delta was slow to call for an end to Trump’s family separation policy in 2018, when other airlines pushed back. He says Delta also backed the One Big Beautiful Bill, which you can find directly on the White House website. With this backing, Benson says Delta “wrote ICE a blank check to terrorize all of us during Operation Metro Surge.”
Nadiyah Salawdeh, a queer Palestinian with the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), says that Delta’s use of Boeing airplanes is a direct tie to Boeing’s creation of weapon systems used in warfare, which “makes them directly complicit in the manufacturing of nuclear weapons, military aircrafts, and guided munitions.”
Waymo
While legislation for guidelines around self-driving cars in Minnesota failed to pass, Maeve Aickin with the Anti-War Committee (AWC) says Waymo cars are still being tested in the Twin Cities. Aickin accused Waymo of “attempting to ingratiate itself with our already over-surveilled and over-policed queer, Black, and immigrant communities.” Police have already used the cars to get video footage for criminal evidence in other states. Aickin’s concern is that the use of downloading footage from Waymo’s external cameras could be implemented by the Minneapolis Police Department “to expand the surveillance of our immigrant neighbors and their allies resisting ICE occupation, [which] is terrifying.”
Human Rights Campaign
Salawdeh says just six months ago, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) listed RTX and Northrop Grumman, two aerospace companies accused of war crimes in Gaza, as platinum sponsors. While HRC stopped receiving donations from the two companies, that “do[es] not mean that they are not responsible for mass death of queer people in Gaza. When the bombs fall and the bullets are fired in countries devastated by imperialist violence, queer folks die the same as everyone else.” She notes that HRC also gave Boeing a 100 out of 100 rating for equality.
US Bank
Meredith Aby with Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) says US Bank is a significant backer of the fossil fuels industry, “including the Enbridge Line 3 and 5 pipelines, TC Energy’s Keystone XL project, and ExxonMobil and Chevron.” Aby points to the Trump administration’s war on Iran as a “will to wage war for oil,” and that “there aren’t enough rainbows or glitter to dress up US Bank’s support for big oil.”
US Bank also provides revolving credit to defense giants, like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamic, and Boeing.
Keeping Pride for the people
Overall, the message from activists was clear: Queer people deserve sponsors that are fighting for the people, not against them, supporting and funding Pride.
“LGBTQ organizations like TC Pride cannot claim to honor the legacy of the Stonewall Uprising, and subsequent Pride march led by Latina and Black trans sex workers, Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, while shunning the principles and revolutionary politics of its organizers,” Yates explains. “Years after she led the first Pride and her dear sister Marsha had been murdered by transphobic violence, Sylvia Rivera did an interview where she condemned the corporate takeover of Pride. She called out organizers for turning her movement into a capitalist festival and said, ‘I have given them their pride. They have yet to give me mine.’”
Twin Cities Pride will take place in Loring Park in Minneapolis on June 27-28 this year, as in years past, while Taking Back Pride’s 10th annual march will happen in Downtown Minneapolis that Sunday.
