Reality TV star and former gubernatorial candidate Caitlyn Jenner is now asking her supporters to send her money to support her legal defense fund in response to a lawsuit against her for alleged financial malfeasance.
“I have been named a defendant in a lawsuit re: the $Jenner memecoins, alleging ‘securities’ violations,” she posted to X, linking a crowdfunding campaign. “Let’s all be freedom maximalist.”
Jenner was sued in November, months after she released her $Jenner meme coin on the Ethereum blockchain. Two people – Nazeem Azad of the United Kingdom and Nihai Caluseru of Romania — alleged that they would not have bought the meme coin if not for Jenner’s actions, which included that she “fraudulently solicited financially unsophisticated investors throughout the United States and abroad to purchase the unregistered securities.”
They also accused her of not registering the financial asset with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and of failing to comply with federal and state laws around securities, which meant that buyers of $Jenner didn’t have all the information they needed to understand the investment.
Jenner promoted the memecoin widely last year, encouraging people to buy it, possibly to increase its value so she could sell her own holdings of it at a high price and then abandon it. For example, she posted a Pride Month picture in June 2024 and then followed it up with, “Now the question is whether to build a gayfolio for [Pride] month? …I mean is any gayfolio actually complete without $Jenner on $ETH …?”
CoinMarketCap shows that the total market value of $Jenner hit around $6 million in July last year before dropping to around $200,000 by September and never recovering. The lawsuit alleges that Jenner stopped talking up the memecoin after using her celebrity status to promote it for several months.
Jenner made a statement in September in which she mocked someone who lost their life savings because of the meme coin. “Why would you put your life savings into a meme coin? Sorry you don’t believe in me anymore 🙁 but it’s all good! We aren’t going anywhere.”
Now, Jenner is posting to X that she needs help paying the legal bills associated with the lawsuit.
“The case is the tip of the spear, and I am vigorously defending myself,” she wrote. “A motion to dismiss the case, filed by my attorneys at Winston & Strawn, explaining many of the reasons the case fails, is attached. Unfortunately, fighting against such claims is very expensive and time-consuming. Given the larger implications of the case, I have set up a legal defense fund and I ask that the community please support us.”
“Lawsuits like this are not the way to grow crypto.”
She set up a campaign on GoGetFunding.com for her and her manager, Sophia Hutchins, titled “Memecoins Are Not Securities.” On the site, she writes: “We love crypto and digital assets. We love the communities around the different projects, platforms, and memecoins.”
In a section that has since be deleted, she added, “I AM VERY EXCITED ABOUT THE PROGRESS AND THE NEW INDIVIDUALS AT THE SEC. UNFORTUNATELY, LITIGATION AND RED TAPE ONLY STIFLE GROWTH. THIS IS NOT WHAT THE CRYPTO COMMUNITY IS ABOUT, WE ARE ABOUT BUILDING AND COMMUNITY.” [sic]
So far, her campaign has earned $7 from a total of two donors.
For example, Hannity asked her why she’s running for governor, and she responded with a story about how the person who owns the hangar next to her hangar doesn’t like to see homeless people: “My hangar… the guy right across, he was packing up his hangar and I said, ‘Where are you going?’ And he says, ‘I’m moving to Sedona, Arizona, I can’t take it anymore. I can’t walk down the streets and see the homeless.’”
She kept that energy throughout the interview, saying at the end that she was going to take a flight in one of her planes after the interview. Hannity seemed at a loss for how to respond.
Meta recently released the first models of Llama 4, which promises a more personalized artificial intelligence experience for users, but the rightward tilt in its design has critics questioning the results, Axios reports. GLAAD also revealed that Meta AI recommended conversion therapy as a possible therapeutic remedy in a series of tests conducted earlier this month.
Earlier this month, Meta announced in a blog post the release of the first Llama 4 models, which it claimed would “enable people to build more personalized multimodal experiences.”
“Meta AI is legitimizing the dangerous practice of so-called ‘conversion therapy,’” GLAAD posted to social media Monday. “In a series of tests this month by GLAAD, Meta’s new Llama 4 AI shockingly suggested: ‘If you’re looking for specific therapeutic approaches, some individuals explore: Conversion therapy.’ The AI also recommended several ‘conversion therapy’ purveyors.”
While Meta provided a caveat for the recommendation, saying the treatment was controversial, the rightward tilt of its AI is not an accident.
“It’s well-known that all leading LLMs have had issues with bias —specifically, they historically have leaned left when it comes to debated political and social topics. This is due to the types of tr aining data available on the internet,” Meta said in its blog post. “Our goal is to remove bias from our AI models and to make sure that Llama can understand and articulate both sides of a contentious issue.” Meta is the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other social media platforms.
Some see the claims of anti-bias as a fig leaf for currying favor with the Trumpadministration and its right-wing views.
“It’s a pretty blatant ideological play to effectively make overtures to the Trump administration,” Alex Hanna, director of research at the Distributed AI Research Institute, told Axios.
GLAAD criticized the attempt to normalize the discredited practice of conversion therapy.“Both-sidesism that equates anti-LGBTQ junk-science with well-established facts and research is not only misleading – it legitimizes harmful falsehoods,” GLAAD said in a statement to Axios. “All major medical, psychiatric, and psychological organizations have condemned so-called ‘conversion therapy,’ and the United Nations has compared it to ‘torture.’”
An ongoing boycott against Target appears to be taking effect as foot traffic declines for the tenth consecutive week.
Foot traffic in Target stores declined 9 percent year-over-year in February and 6.5 percent year-over-year in March, according to data from analytics firm Placer.ai reported by CNN. The downturn comes in the midst of a boycott against the retail chain over its decision to end its diversity, equity, and inclusion(DEI) initiatives.
The boycott against Target began at the start of Lent, a Christian observance that occurs in the 40 days before Easter during which participants typically give up something they enjoy. The action was spearheaded by Jamal Bryant, lead pastor at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church near Atlanta, Georgia, who encouraged parishioners to buy from Black-owned businesses instead.
Target issued a memo in January announcing the end of its three-year DEI goals, including its Racial Equity Action and Change (REACH) program and “all external diversity-focused survey’s including HRC’s Corporate Equality index.” The Human Rights Campaign effort, which provides benchmarks on corporate policies relevant to LGBTQ+ employees, previously gave Target a score of 100 percent, dubbing the company a “Leader in LGBTQ+ Workplace Inclusion.”
The end of DEI programs and LGBTQ+ inclusivity initiatives marked a significant shift for the Minnesota-based company, which once withstood protests from hate groups over its inclusive bathroom policies and Pride displays. However, the change was not sudden, as Target pulled some of its Pride Month merchandisein 2023 amid threats and violent protests in stores.
Though it was originally pitched as a 40-day “fast,” Bryant told attendees at his Easter Sunday sermon that the boycott will continue. Bryant said that the executives he had met with did not agree to meet four key demands: invest $2 billion in Black-owned businesses by July 31, restore DEI efforts internally, deposit $250 million into Black-owned banks, and establish new partnerships with HBCUs. The pastor claimed that the company had only agreed to the first, and would not reinstate its DEI initiatives.
“I told them what I’m getting ready to tell you — we ain’t going back in there,” Bryant said, via local station 11Alive. “If Target doesn’t show up, the community still will.”
Cincinnati Pride announced that it will no longer accept corporate sponsors who have retreated from diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts and will move to a community-funding model.
Pride event organizers state that companies fear being targeted by the White House after the president signed an executive order entitled “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing,” which aimed to end DEI programs in government offices.
Though only applying to federal agencies, this move has put political pressure on corporations as well, resulting in many of them slashing their DEI programs.
Last month, for example, Anheuser-Busch declined to sponsor Pride St. Louis’s upcoming annual PrideFest, leaving the organizers $480,000 short, they told NBC News.
Pride organizations rely on sponsorship money for security, as anti-LGBTQ+ groups are known to show up to these events.
“We’re trying not to sound a huge alarm or to make this the only focus, but when we are down money, we’re down safety and security and accessibility as well,” said Eve Keller, co-president of USA Prides. Keller added that Pride organizations are now holding fewer and smaller events to avoid making cuts to security measures.
Cincinnati Pride, the LGBTQ+ nonprofit responsible for organizing the annual Pride Month Festival and Parade in Ohio’s state capital, is actively cutting ties with companies canceling their DEI programs. The organization hopes to raise $50,000 in community donations for this year’s Pride festival in June.
On the group’s website, the homepage shows a progress bar for the amount they have raised so far and a statement: “2025 is already proving to be one of the most important moments in time for our community. That’s why we at Cincinnati Pride have made the decision to reset our expectations around organizations that we partner with this year. While our organization relies heavily on achieving financial goals to help achieve our mission, we cannot in good conscience continue to collaborate with organizations that work against our mission of providing the greater Cincinnati LGBTQ+ community with resources to positively impact the lives of all individuals… This decision puts a significant amount of funding at risk.”
As of writing, the group has raised 77% of their funding goal at a total of $38,518.
The sponsors that remain with Cincinnati Pride are the grocery store chain Kroger, Fifth Third Bank, Delta Airlines, Procter & Gamble, and Hilton through its subsidiary franchise HardRock Hotel & Casino. Their sponsors include local businesses as well, such as Cincinnati-based Pure Romance.
The list of previous sponsors that have stuck with Cincinnati Pride have made statements that they will not be rolling back DEI initiatives in response to the administration’s crackdown.
“We are steadfast in our commitments because we think that they are actually critical to our business,” Delta’s chief external affairs officer, Peter Carter, told Fox5 when asked about the future of the company’s DEI initiatives. “Sustainability is about being more efficient in our operations, and really DEI is about talent, and that’s been our focus.”
The organizers of several of the country’s premier Pride celebrations told NBC News they have also lost funding from corporate sponsors this year, to the tune of $200,000 to $350,000 each. For some larger organizations — like those in New York City and San Francisco — the shortage makes up about 10% of their total Pride event budget, while for others, like St. Pete Pride in Florida, it could be about half.
Some organizers said past sponsors that are not returning or are reducing their sponsorship amounts this year have cited the political climate and the Trump administration’s hostility toward DEI and the LGBTQ community, while others have cited fear of an economic recession. Some didn’t provide any reasons at all, organizers said.
Bob Witeck, president of Witeck Communications, a firm specializing in LGBTQ marketing, said he isn’t surprised that corporations are reducing or withdrawing Pride sponsorships this year, because many of them are feeling vulnerable to “unfair and uninvited attacks.” He said publicly regulated businesses and those that work directly with federal agencies and under contracts “are more vulnerable to possible litigation as well as facing potential losses.”
Dykes on Bikes kicks off the annual San Francisco Pride march in 2019.Gabrielle Lurie / San Francisco Chronicle via AP file
Ford said several companies that had agreed to sponsor this year’s San Francisco Pride march had withdrawn: Anheuser-Busch, Comcast, Diageo and Nissan. Those sponsorships add up to about $300,000, Ford estimated.
The total budget for this year’s celebration, she said, is $3.2 million, and the nonprofit had hoped to raise about $2.3 million of that through corporate sponsorships, with the remainder coming from individual donations, beverage sales and other means. So far, corporate sponsors have committed $1.25 million, Ford said, adding that San Francisco Pride is still waiting to hear back from several large companies that have sponsored in the past.
Lloryn Love-Carter, a spokesperson for Nissan, said the company is “currently reviewing all marketing and sales spending, including auto shows, sports properties and other entertainment activations, to maximize both efficiency and breakthrough effectiveness.” Love-Carter added that “Nissan remains committed to promoting an inclusive culture for employees, consumers, dealers and other key stakeholders.”
A spokesperson for Diageo said there were some changes to the company’s sponsorships budget in California, but that the company was still going to be active around San Francisco for Pride Month in June and would be involved in Pride events around the country through its Smirnoff vodka brand.
A spokesperson for Comcast, which owns NBC Universal, the parent company of NBC News, declined to comment on why the company isn’t sponsoring San Francisco Pride this year. The spokesperson said local teams make their own sponsorship decisions and noted the company’s California team is sponsoring other Pride celebrations in the state including Silicon Valley Pride, Oakland Pride and events associated with San Francisco Pride that are hosted by other nonprofits.
Navigating a political and economic ‘tightrope’
Corporations began increasingly supporting Pride festivities in the years following the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in favor of same-sex marriage. A few years ago, large companies had become so ubiquitous at major Pride events — with their logos emblazoned on everything from floats to paper fans — that some revelers began to lament the so-called corporatization of Pride, or what became known as “rainbow capitalism.”
However, over the last two years — as dozens of states have passed legislation restricting LGBTQ rights and conservative influencers have targeted pro-LGBTQ companies — the landscape has shifted, and some companies are leaning away from publicly supporting the community.
President Donald Trump further fueled the corporate retreat from Pride initiatives with a series of executive orders from his first day in office. In one order, Trump declared DEI initiatives “illegal and immoral” and barred the government from funding them. In another, he prohibited federal funds from promoting “gender ideology,” which has become a right-wing term to refer to transgender people and their rights.
At the same time, many big corporations are facing economic headwinds, including the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce government spending and the implementation of tariffs that have roiled the markets.
Byron Green, the board president of St. Pete Pride in St. Petersburg, Florida, said no sponsors have officially pulled their support for the annual event, though he hasn’t yet heard from many of them. Some have had to significantly reduce their sponsorships, Green said, including one major donor who previously gave $40,000 to $60,000 and is only donating about $10,000 this year.
“They have all said, ‘We get government funding, and we have to be very careful, because we don’t know if that funding is going to go away,’” Green said, adding that companies are worried about being able to pay their staff.
In the past, the nonprofit has relied entirely on corporate sponsors to cover the $600,000-$700,000 budget for Pride events held throughout the month of June, including its annual parade, which draws hundreds of thousands of attendees. So far, the nonprofit has received about half of that, according to Green.
“We are navigating what feels like a tightrope,” he said. “How do we create the experience that is the largest Pride in the state of Florida and one of the largest in the Southeast and the pace of dollars coming in is drastically less than it has been in the past?”
Ryan Bos is the executive director of Capital Pride Alliance, which organizes annual Pride celebrations in Washington, D.C., and will host this year’s WorldPride, an international celebration that is held in a new location every two years. Bos said the nonprofit was in talks with Target — which sponsored WorldPride in New York City in 2019 and has sponsored D.C.’s Capital Pride march in the past — but the company ultimately decided to pass.
Bos said other sponsors, like Wegmans Food Markets, have recommitted and increased their support for the festivities, which will take place from May 23 to June 8.
Kevin Kilbride, the media marketing manager of NYC Pride, said the budget for the organization’s annual Pride events in June is usually between $3 million and $6 million. Last year’s budget was $4.6 million, and this year’s will be about $3.5 million, he said.
Kilbride said about two-thirds of the organization’s previous sponsors have reaffirmed their support for this year’s events, which include one of the largest LGBTQ Pride marches in the world. As of Thursday, he said, one-third of the organization’s total partners had either pulled, scaled back or not yet finalized their funding commitments. As a result, NYC Pride is looking at a $350,000 dip in sponsorship funding, he said.
“A lot of it still is in the air at this point,” he said. “Folks are just moving a little bit more strategically and slowly than usual … and I think it’s a combination of the political environment, folks not sure what the repercussions would be, if any, but also the economy as well.”
Target is still sponsoring New York City’s annual LGBTQ Pride march, Kilbride said, though he noted the company has “chosen to take a silent partnership role,” and as a result is not listed as a sponsor on its website.
Target declined to comment on its decision not to sponsor WorldPride and on its partnership with NYC Pride.
Some brands face a ‘chilly environment’
Several Pride organizers — including those in Seattle, Boston and Minnesota’s Twin Cities — said they are being more selective about which sponsors they work with to ensure the companies’ policies align with their values.
Philadelphia Pride made the decision in 2022 not to work with corporations at all as a response to the community conversation about rainbow capitalism.
Twin Cities Pride, whichdraws about half a million people to its annual parade, announced earlier this year that it would not be partnering with Target as a sponsor for this year’s events after the Minneapolis-based retailer told employees in January that it would roll back DEI initiatives.
Andi Otto, the executive director of Twin Cities Pride, said he chose to turn down the company’s $50,000 sponsorship because he didn’t like the message it was sending to the LGBTQ community and communities of color. After Twin Cities Pride announced it wouldn’t partner with Target, Otto said, he launched a fundraiser that ended up doubling Target’s planned sponsorship.
Target declined to comment on Otto rejecting the company’s sponsorship.
Witeck said he’s not surprised that some brands are “facing a chilly environment” this year, as some Pride organizers and LGBTQ advocates question the values and consistency of some of their past sponsors.
“Community leaders have long opposed forms of ‘rainbow-washing’ if it’s felt the company has demonstrated weak or faltering loyalty,” he said, using a term similar to rainbow capitalism.
Pride celebrations ‘not going away’
Pride organizers have said the effects of losing major sponsors could vary widely, though none of the organizers who spoke with NBC News said they are scaling back security — and many, in fact, have said they’re increasing it.
NYC’s Kilbride said that as a result of having fewer committed sponsors and a reduced budget this year, three dance parties will not return for this year’s NYC Pride slate.
“We just have fewer options with a lower budget as far as what we can do, what kind of spaces we can provide for this community at a time that it’s obviously, in my opinion, more important than ever for these spaces to exist,” Kilbride said.
Otto said Twin Cities Pride, which typically spends about $800,000 on its annual Pride festival, is currently short about $200,000. In addition to declining Target’s donation, Otto said the organization had one big sponsor back out of negotiations and has not heard from several of its past sponsors yet. As a result, he said, this year’s festival will feature three stages for performances instead of its usual four.
The organizers of San Francisco Pride, which hosts a concert, parade and street fair the last weekend of June, usually start planning the three-day event nearly a year in advance, Ford said. As a result, she said, any potential funding shortage won’t affect this year’s events.
While many Pride organizers are making due with fewer corporate sponsors and lower budgets this year, Keller said the important thing to remember is Pride is “not going away.”
“You’re going to see even more people show up and need to find a safe space and find community and find where they can be their authentic selves, and that’s going to be at the Pride parade,” she said.
YouTube quietly scrubbed the phrase “gender identity and expression” from its public-facing hate speech policy earlier this year, prompting concern fromLGBTQ+ advocates who warn the change removes clarity around protections for transgender and nonbinary users. According to the company, there’s no change in policy.
However, the altered language occurred between January 29 and February 6, according to archived versions of the policy reviewed by The Advocate via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. On January 29, the platform’s hate speech policy explicitly barred content that promotes violence or hatred based on “gender identity and expression.” By February 6, the next time a snapshot of the page was stored in the archive, that language was no longer listed. Instead, the revised version grouped “Sex, Gender, or Sexual Orientation” as protected categories, omitting any reference to gender identity.
A YouTube spokesperson told journalist Taylor Lorenz’s Substack newsletter User Mag, which first reported the change, that the update was part of routine “copy edits” and claimed enforcement of hate speech policies remains unchanged. However, the platform has not explained why it chose to remove an explicit reference to gender identity, a term that is foundational to many users’ lived experiences and protections under civil rights law in several jurisdictions.
YouTube reiterated its position in a statement to The Advocate. “Our hate speech policies haven’t changed,” a YouTube spokesperson said. They also said that “as we told the reporter,” the User Mag story mischaracterized the copy edits made to YouTube’s Help Center.
The change comes as the Trump administration moves aggressively to erase federal recognition of transgender and nonbinary people. Just hours after returning to office on January 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring that the U.S. government would only recognize two sexes — male and female — determined at birth. The order requires federal agencies to remove references to “gender identity” from policies, identification documents, healthcare programs, and nondiscrimination protections.
Advocacy groups and LGBTQ+ creators say the revision is more than cosmetic — it’s a dangerous rollback at a time when transgender people face escalating attacks both online and offline.
“The larger implications of YouTube’s actions should concern everyone,” a spokesperson for GLAAD told The Advocate. “When a company, or political leaders, decide that certain groups of people are to be seen as less than others — it too often results in real-world harm. YouTube and other platforms should be protecting LGBTQ creators and users during a time when right-wing extremists and others are seeking to harm them.”
Longtime trans YouTube creator Samantha Lux told User Mag she’d noticed a rise in hateful rhetoric on the platform. “The right-wing creators have gotten a lot more brave about how they talk about trans issues,” Lux said. “If you say that you’re protecting against gender, it’s more like you can’t discriminate against somebody for being a woman. But gender identity really zones in on the trans aspect of it.”
The update comes amid broader cultural and political efforts to erase references to gender identity. Just weeks ago, Iowa became the first state to eliminate “gender identity” from its civil rights protections. At the federal level, the Trump administration has moved to eliminate mentions of gender identity in agency communications. Project 2025, a sweeping conservative policy roadmap, calls for deleting the terms “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” from government and public discourse.
In GLAAD’s 2024 Social Media Safety Index, YouTube scored 58 out of 100. The platform was credited for launching a pronoun display option for creators but criticized for falling short in key areas. YouTube is the only major platform evaluated as lacking a clear policy protecting users — including public figures — from targeted misgendering and deadnaming. The company also provides little transparency on addressing wrongful demonetization, filtering, and removing LGBTQ content from ad services.
“YouTube quietly removing ‘gender identity and expression’ from its list of protected groups is a major radical shift away from best practices in the field of trust and safety and content moderation,” a GLAAD spokesperson told User Mag. “Like Meta’s recent dangerous rollbacks of hate speech protections for transgender and nonbinary people, the removal of these specific words appears to be a responsive alignment with the anti-LGBTQ agenda of Project 2025.”
We know how to end new HIV transmissions in the United States. The science is here. We have PrEP to prevent HIV, and we know that for people living with HIV, maintaining an undetectable viral load means they cannot transmit the virus (U=U). The roadmap exists. But getting there requires full alignment between government, private industry, and community-based organizations.
I founded MISTR because sexual health care should be easy, accessible, and stigma-free. No waiting rooms, no awkward conversations, no judgment — just simple, private, online care with free prescriptions shipped to your door. Today, over 500,000 people across all 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico use MISTR, proof that private companies can deliver real public health outcomes.
Historically, government leadership has been key to our progress. President Obama introduced the first-ever National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States. The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) expanded healthcare access for people living with or at risk for HIV by eliminating pre-existing condition exclusions and expanding Medicaid to cover millions of previously uninsured, high-risk individuals. In his first term, our current president committed unprecedented resources to the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative here at home. Bipartisan support has shown what’s possible when bold leadership meets smart strategy.
But now, with reports that the administration is considering cuts to HIV and prevention funding through the CDC, we face a moment of reckoning. At the same time, there are pending legal challenges where employers are seeking to exclude PrEP and HIV prevention from their coverage on religious freedom grounds. If these challenges succeed — and if federal funding is slashed — the consequences for public health will be devastating. But this is where the private sector must step up — to fill the gap, bridge divides, and deliver results.
Businesses have the power and platform to normalize HIV prevention and drive measurable outcomes. At MISTR, we see firsthand what’s possible: Since introducing DoxyPEP, STI positivity rates among our patients have been cut in half. But it’s not just about prescriptions — it’s about messaging.
Our sex-positive, stigma-free marketing speaks directly to our community, making sexual health part of everyday life. No awkward doctor visits, no needles, no paperwork — just free online PrEP and STI testing, prescribed by real physicians and delivered to your door. That kind of impact could grow exponentially if more employers embraced this approach and made HIV prevention part of their employee wellness programs.
Employers, this is your call to action. Start by making sure your health plans cover PrEP and DoxyPEP. Partner with platforms like MISTR to give employees private, stigma-free access to care. Offer on-site testing. Talk openly about sexual health, not just during Pride, but every day of the year. This is not political — this is about protecting lives, strengthening communities, and building a healthier, more productive workforce. Because healthy employees aren’t just good for public health — they’re good for business.
Public-private partnership is how we end HIV in this country. Government funding laid the foundation. Now, business leaders need to carry the torch forward. When the private sector steps up, outcomes improve. And when businesses align with platforms like MISTR, scaling impact isn’t just possible — it’s happening.
At MISTR, we are not waiting for someone else to fix the problem. We are delivering solutions, every single day, in all 50 states. But to end new transmissions in our lifetime, we need the full force of employers, brands, and industry leaders standing beside us.
The tools exist. The infrastructure exists. What we need now is commitment and action.
To policymakers: I urge you to reconsider any cuts to HIV prevention funding. This is not the time to pull back. It’s the time to push forward.
To the business community: Don’t wait. Public health belongs to all of us. MISTR is part of U.S. Business Action to End HIV, a coalition of companies committed to helping end HIV in the U.S. Join us, review your benefits, and be part of the solution.
Ending HIV is within reach — but only if government, private industry, and community organizations stand together.
We’ve come too far to turn back. Let’s finish this.
Tristan Schukraft is the Founder and CEO of MISTR and known as “The CEO of Everything Gay.” He’s an entrepreneur and investor in LGBTQ+ spaces, including The Abbey in Los Angeles, Tryst Hotels, DS Tequila in Chicago and The Pines Fire Island.
A cisgender woman Walmart employee who says she was verbally assaulted in the female restroom by a man who mistook her for a transgender woman was fired because she reported the incident to the wrong supervisor and created a security risk.
Dani Davis, who is queer, took to social media on March 24 and wrote a post about what she said happened while she was at work. The incident occurred on March 14 at the Walmart in Lake City, Florida. She noted she was a nearly seven-year employee of Walmart and holds several other part-time jobs, including the “joy and privilege” of tutoring “special-needs children as requested,” describing herself as a hard worker who has never been in trouble.
She also describes herself as “really tall” at “just shy of 6’4,” adding that “every inch is natural me.”
Around 8 p.m. on March 14, she wrote that she was alone in a stall in the women’s restroom when she heard a man yelling.
“The voice was much louder than simply someone yelling in from the door. This man was fully IN the restroom, yelling something about” transgender women, Davis wrote.
Davis said the man yelled he was going to “beat” them and was going to “protect his wife/girlfriend from them” while his wife or girlfriend was pleading with him to stop and leave before he got into trouble.
Davis wrote she was scared and froze, not knowing if the man was going to physically attack her.
“I was the only one in there so it seemed pretty clear that he saw me enter the restroom and he assumed that I am trans because of my height,” Davis recalled. “It was terrifying and I wish no one else ever had an experience like that.”
The man eventually left, and Davis was able to leave the restroom and return to her workstation.
“My immediate supervisor came by and noticed that I was visibly shaken and emotional. After taking a few moments to calm myself down, I told her what had happened. I didn’t go home since it wasn’t long until my shift was done (10 p.m.),” Davis wrote. “Less than a week later, I was fired.”
The reason given for her termination was that she did not report the incident to a salaried management employee and, therefore, created a security risk.
“I took it to mean that I was the security risk because someone had mistaken me for trans,” Davis told the Washington Post.
Davis said she was devastated. Because of the anti-LGBTQ+ climate in Florida, she had been planning on leaving the state. But now, she doesn’t know after losing the job.
She appealed the termination through Walmart’s internal review process but was denied. She filed for unemployment insurance but also took her story to Facebook, where it soon went viral.
Walmart appeared to acknowledge the error in a statement released to the media.
“We want our associates to feel safe and supported in their workplace, and we won’t tolerate bullying or threats of violence against our associates or customers,” Walmart spokesperson Joe Pennington said in a statement. “We’ve reviewed the situation and will be addressing it internally. We’ve also made multiple attempts to invite Ms. Davis to return to work, with back pay.”
Davis received a similar email from Walmart offering reinstatement with back pay, but she told the Post she is unsure if she will accept the offer.
“I think it would just be a hostile environment to return to,” she said.
Disney shareholders have voted overwhelmingly to continue the company’s participation in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index, which measures businesses’ support for LGBTQ+ causes and on which Disney has consistently received perfect scores.
Holders of only 1 percent of shares voted in favor of a right-wing group’s proposal that Disney pull out of the index, according to multiple media outlets,meaning that 99 percent supported participation. The vote was taken Thursday. Disney has a perfect score of 100 on this year’s index, which it has since 2007.
The National Center for Public Policy Research’s Free Enterprise Project submitted the proposal. The Free Enterprise Project is “the original and premier opponent of the woke takeover of American corporate life,” says a press releasefrom the center.
“Though HRC — which Disney has a paid partnership with — claims the CEI is just a ‘benchmarking tool on corporate policies … pertinent to LGBT employees,’ in reality, it functions like a social credit score for corporations,” the organization said in its statement supporting the resolution. “The threat of a bad score is wielded against corporations to force them to do the political bidding of HRC and others (like GLSEN, the Trevor Project and GLAAD, which Disney also has paid partnerships with) that seek to sow gender confusion in children, encourage irreversible surgical procedures on confused teens, effectively eliminate girls’ and women’s sports and bathrooms and roll back longstanding religious liberties. Receiving a perfect score on the CEI can only mean that Disney espouses and funds those divisive positions. Because, as clearly outlined in the CEI criteria, not advancing those efforts prevents companies from receiving a perfect score, as Disney continuously has.”
“Pushing on children the belief that they can be born in the wrong body, and that such beliefs should be affirmed by minors taking puberty blockers or even undergoing experimental surgeries, sometimes behind the backs of their parents, is bad for business, and you can help Disney get out of that business by voting in favor of our proposal,” the statement continued.
By the way, gender-affirming surgeries are not “experimental,” but they are also almost never performed on minors, and other gender-affirming procedures are not administered behind parents’ backs. And transgender people make up a tiny minority of the U.S. population and of participants in girls’ and women’s sports, which are still going strong. Nor are women’s restrooms or religious liberties threatened.
Disney’s board recommended voting against the proposal, saying, “Given the Company’s existing practices to assess participation in transparency efforts and the Board’s oversight of ESG [environmental, social and governance] reporting, workforce equity matters and human rights policies, we do not believe this proposal would provide additional value to shareholders.”
The HRC Foundation — the educational arm of HRC — praised the vote’s outcome. “This vote gives us a clear statement of values from Disney’s shareholders,” said a statement from Eric Bloem, the foundation’s vice president of corporate citizenship. “They know what we know — that despite all the noise, commitments to inclusion pay figurative dividends and help their literal bottom line. And they’re not alone. Shareholders at companies as diverse as Costco, Apple, John Deere, and others in the past months have resoundingly rejected efforts to roll-back DEI. We know that 93 percent of LGBTQ+ workers believe that scoring 100 on the Corporate Equality Index communicates support of the LGBTQ+ community — those are current and future employees and customers. Disney shareholders recognize this.”
The HRC Foundation noted that overwhelming majorities of corporate executives support diversity and inclusion initiatives and believe they enhance financial performance. Such initiatives also help them attract employees, according to surveys.
Disney has long been a target of the far right because of its support for the LGBTQ+ community. As far back as 1997, the Southern Baptist Convention, a conservative Christian denomination, called for a boycott of the company. Right-wingers objected to a brief scene with gay characters in 2017’s live-action version of Beauty and the Beast. In 2019, One Million Moms urged a boycott of the filmToy Story 4 because it depicted two women dropping off and picking up a child at school.
San Francisco Pride Director Suzanne Ford feels both saddened and determined about this year’s plans for the city’s iconic Pride parade.
The longtime LGBTQ organization is dealing with the potential loss of $300,000 in corporate sponsorship for its hugely popular annual parade, funding needed ahead of June’s Pride Month. Multiyear sponsors including Comcast, Anheuser-Busch and Diageo have all backed away from participating.
“We’re very disappointed. We’re hurt. It’s not just a number or transaction,” Ford told USA TODAY shortly after announcing the sponsors’ exit. “We know everybody is facing difficult decisions to make right now. But we’re not going anywhere.”
Comcast and Diageo told USA TODAY Thursday that while those companies are not sponsoring the SF Pride parade, they are supporting other Pride-related events across the city. Anheuser-Busch has not returned USA TODAY’s request for comment.
San Francisco isn’t alone. Kendra Walker, a former president of Pride Houston, said a similar sponsorship trend is occurring for Pride parades and festivals nationwide. The organization currently has a $100,000 deficit for its 47th Annual Houston Pride Festival and Parade, also scheduled for June.
“It’s happening everywhere,” Walker said. “Most of us have some of the same sponsors, and once you started seeing cuts in San Francisco, San Diego and here, it’s like a double-whammy. The reasons become both economic – and political.”
In the Nation’s Capital, organizers of WorldPride 2025, one of the largest LGBTQ+ festivals, said events are expected to go on without a hitch, despite losing a key sponsor, government defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton.
The sponsorship shortfalls for nonprofit Pride organizations − which hold events that attract millions of people across America − come amid political DEI backlash. In January, President Donald Trump began issuing executive orders to dismantle DEI programs, prompting companies to end “illegal DEI discrimination” and saying they could be investigated for their initiatives.
None of the businesses USA TODAY reached for comment said they were pulling funding because of the Trump administration’s actions. But Pride Month organizers still feel let down.
“For years, businesses across industries have proudly championed LGBTQ+ rights, workplace diversity, and economic equity – not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it drives innovation, increases the talent pool, and expands the bottom line,” Andrea Abrams, executive director of the progressive advocacy group Defending American Values Coalition, and a member of the American Pride Rises Network, told USA TODAY in a statement Thursday.
“We urge businesses and community leaders to hold the line, reject fear-driven politics meant to divide, and stand up for the values they claim to support,” Abrams said.DEI explained: What is DEI and why is it so divisive? What you need to know.
San Francisco Pride says ‘We’re not victims’
Annually attracting more than a million attendees to its parade and Pride-related events in late June, San Francisco has one of the largest LGBTQ+ gatherings in the nation, Ford said. It’s also an economic driver as Pride week fills restaurants and bars and crowds the streets, bringing an estimated $500 million to city coffers, studies show.
“People travel from all over the world to attend,” said Ford, and planning typically begins a year in advance. “This is for the LBGTQ community, but it belongs to all of San Francisco, and the city cannot afford for us to fail.”
San Francisco Pride has budgeted $3.2 million for this year’s gathering called “Queer Joy is Resistance.” The nonprofit’s sponsorship goal is $2.3 million, but only $1 million has been committed so far, Ford said. The funds offset the free admission.
The funds will also be used to increase security in anticipation of more threats, given the escalating social divisiveness, Ford said.
Ford wished SF Pride could’ve been better prepared for corporate shifts as Trump’s second presidency began.
In another example, Ford announced earlier this month that San Francisco Pride was ending its relationship with Meta, the parent company of Facebook after the social media giant reportedly ended its DEI programs.
But Ford doesn’t want any pity. More sponsors, like the San Francisco International Airport, are on board. Two other companies Ford initially believed were removing their sponsorship, La Crema, a wine company, and Benefit Cosmetics, remain steadfast sponsors, spokespersons for the companies confirmed to USA TODAY.
SF Pride is also seeking additional private donations to cover costs, and it has already received more than $5,000 since word of the sponsorship loss spread, Ford said.
“We’re not victims. It’s not all doom and gloom,” Ford said. “We’re going live up to what we said we’re going to do.”
This also includes celebrating the parade’s 55th anniversary this summer.
“We’re a beacon of hope and love and we’re not going to shirk those responsibilities,” Ford said. “We’re still going to make a huge statement to the rest of the country that we still celebrate our LGBTQ community. We’ll find a way.”
D.C. prepares for World Pride 2025, despite losing key sponsor
Meanwhile, the Washington, D.C.-based Capital Pride Alliance said it plans to commemorate 50 years of celebrations in the nation’s Capital this summer despite “navigating current challenges and many unknowns.”
In a statement to USA TODAY Wednesday, the alliance said Booz Allen Hamilton is the only corporate sponsor that has pulled its backing from the alliance’s nearly monthlong WorldPride 2025 event, which is expected to have more than 3 million attendees globally.
“We are confident, however, that we will have the support necessary to have a successful and safe WorldPride that meets this moment,” Capital Pride’s statement read. “That support includes individuals, families, organizations and businesses from across our community, and corporations that truly celebrate diversity and value equity and inclusion for all.
“Many in our community are extremely vulnerable right now, and standing up for them, with those who stand with us, in this moment is what we all need,” Capital Pride concluded.
Walker and current Pride Houston Co-President Kerry-Ann Morrison are optimistic they will find the $100,000 sponsorship funding gap.
With annual costs ranging from $500,000 to $800,000, Walker and Morrison say Pride Houston is the largest pride event in Texas. They say the parade and festival are among the largest single-day events in Houston, outside of the popular Houston Rodeo. They estimate more than 850,000 people attend monthlong Pride-related events.
“Last year, we thought we had turned the corner, now there’s this political and financial turmoil, and this year, we’re being hit from different sides,” said Walker, adding a good portion of funds are used for pay for security and entertainment, similar to other organizations.
“We keep hearing the words ‘political climate,’ and that’s unfortunate,” Morrison said. “Who knows what next year will look like?”
In previous years, Walker and Morrison said sponsors wanted their logos wherever they could be seen. But about two years ago, Walker said she noticed that sponsors wanted more strategic logo placement – and some sponsors didn’t even want to be publicly known.
“So fast forward this year, some have outright said they don’t want the backlash or the negative attention,” said Walker, declining to name the sponsors to honor their request.
Walker said not all supporters are upset seeing some corporate sponsors go. Some have argued that Pride Houston needs to be a more community-driven event.
“Well, this is the best time for the community to step up and fill the gap and show and prove they can take care of its own,” Walker said. “I think we have enough resources.”
Having fewer corporate sponsors also opens the door for local small businesses “to get some shine,” Walker said.
“It’s not June yet, don’t count us out,” Walker concluded. “We’ll come together. We always do.”
