What Next | Corporate America Retreats From Pride

Slate News

Slate Podcasts

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 June 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After years of bigger floats and bigger rainbow-ified logos, corporate sponsorship for Pride Month celebrations is dropping off this year. But, given that Pride is the commemoration of an uprising against police harassment, maybe that’s a good thing. Guests: Christina Cauterucci, Slate senior writer and the host of Outward, Slate’s podcast about LGBTQ+ life, and Slow Burn: Gays Against Briggs. Tessa Skara, comedian, musician, co-host of annual comedy show “⁠Corporate Pride⁠” with ⁠James Tom⁠. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Podcast production by Ethan Oberman, Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, Isabel Angell, and Rob Gunther. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I think you're going to be my funniest guest ever.
0:10.1	Oh, my Lord.
0:11.5	No pressure.
0:12.6	Yeah, no pressure at all.
0:16.0	Tessa Scara is a comedian and a friend.
0:19.7	I asked them to come into the studio because it's June.
0:23.6	And Tessa loves pride.
0:27.1	And also my birthday is in June, so.
0:29.5	Oh, so it's the whole package.
0:30.4	I'm kind of the mascot.
0:31.5	I should have always known I was gay, but I didn't.
0:33.7	Yeah.
0:34.9	Yeah.
0:35.6	No, I love June.
0:37.6	Oh, it's glittery.
0:39.1	It's rainbow.
0:40.7	There's community.
0:42.4	And this year, it's so, so dark.
0:49.4	Pride is feeling a little dark this year for a lot of reasons, but a big one is money.
0:58.6	For the last decade or so, many pride celebrations have been bankrolled by name brand American businesses.
1:06.2	Pepsi, UPS, Dyson, the vacuum cleaner company.
1:14.7	This year, a whole lot of those businesses have pulled their funding back, prompting a lot of people to ask, what was corporate pride anyway? To be real,
	...

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