My wife informed me that Target had no LGBTQ stuff on display this year. And apparently they’re already celebrating the 4th of July. That news made me smile.
Over the course of the last few years Roe v Wade has been overturned, sexually explicit books have been being taken out of schools, trans story hours have lessened, men are being removed from women’s sports, and now Corporate America is avoiding LGBTQ… celebrations.
I’d call that a reason to hold our heads high.
But we don’t. Christians can’t seem to get out of the sullen mindset of losing. Read this. Maybe it will lift your spirits.
Some Help From AI
I asked Grok to make a list of Pride Parades that were shut down or scaled down due to funding problems. Here is what I got.
1. Dallas Pride Festival (2023)
• Status: Cancelled
• Details: The Dallas Pride festival was cancelled in 2023 due to difficulties in securing funding. A post on X mentioned this cancellation, indicating financial challenges as the primary reason.
• Note: This refers to the festival, not the parade itself, and there’s no confirmation that the parade was also cancelled.
2. Port St. Lucie Pridefest (2023)
• Status: Cancelled
• Details: The Pride Alliance of the Treasure Coast cancelled the Port St. Lucie Pridefest parade and restricted other pride events to individuals 21 and older. This decision was made in anticipation of a Florida bill signed by Governor Ron DeSantis, aimed at restricting children from attending certain adult performances, such as drag shows. While funding was not explicitly cited as the reason, the broader political and legal climate contributed to the cancellation.
3. St. Cloud, Florida Pride Event (2023)
• Status: Cancelled
• Details: The pride event in St. Cloud, Florida, was cancelled due to a “climate of fear” following the passage of Florida’s Protection of Children Act, which targeted drag performances. Organizers noted that performers felt unsafe, and the decision was influenced by legal concerns rather than funding alone. However, the broader context of rising security costs and political pressure may have compounded financial challenges.
4. San Francisco Pride (2025)
• Status: Not shut down, but facing funding challenges
• Details: San Francisco Pride faced a budget shortfall of approximately $200,000–$300,000 due to the withdrawal of corporate sponsors like Comcast, Anheuser-Busch, and Diageo. Despite this, the parade is proceeding with increased individual donations and support from local foundations to cover costs. Organizers emphasized that cancellation is not an option.
5. New York City Pride (2025)
• Status: Not shut down, but facing funding challenges
• Details: NYC Pride, organized by Heritage of Pride, experienced a $750,000 budget gap after about 20% of corporate sponsors, including PepsiCo and Nissan, either withdrew or scaled back support. Some anonymous corporate donations have helped, and fundraising efforts are ongoing to ensure the parade continues.
6. Twin Cities Pride, Minneapolis (2025)
• Status: Not shut down, but facing funding challenges
• Details: Twin Cities Pride lost a $50,000 sponsorship from Target due to the company’s rollback of DEI initiatives. However, a crowdfunding campaign raised over $89,000, allowing the event to proceed without cancellation.
7. Kansas City Pride (2025)
• Status: Not shut down, but facing funding challenges
• Details: KC Pride in Kansas City, Missouri, faced a $200,000 shortfall, roughly half its annual budget, due to reduced corporate sponsorship. Organizers have scaled back some programming but are committed to continuing the parade and festival.
8. St. Louis PrideFest (2025)
• Status: Not shut down, but facing funding challenges
• Details: St. Louis PrideFest lost a 30-year sponsorship from Anheuser-Busch, resulting in a $150,000 budget shortfall. Additional security costs, such as 6-foot fencing and shutting down a nearby parking garage, further strained finances. The event is still planned to proceed with adjustments.
9. Houston Pride (2025)
• Status: Not shut down, but facing funding challenges
• Details: Pride Houston faced a $100,000 sponsorship funding gap but remains optimistic about filling it through community support. The parade and festival, one of the largest single-day events in Houston, are expected to continue.
10. Columbus Pride (2025)
• Status: Not shut down, but facing funding challenges
• Details: Columbus Pride in Ohio experienced a $125,000 funding cut due to reduced corporate sponsorship, as noted in a post on X. The event has not been cancelled, and organizers are likely seeking alternative funding sources.
11. Idaho’s Largest Pride Celebration (2025)
• Status: Not shut down, but facing funding challenges
• Details: According to a post on X, Idaho’s largest pride celebration lost $400,000 in funding. No specific details confirm cancellation, and it’s likely that organizers are working to mitigate the shortfall.
12. Utah Pride (2025)
• Status: Not shut down, but facing funding challenges
• Details: A post on X reported a $400,000 funding cut for Utah’s pride events. There is no evidence of cancellation, and efforts are likely underway to secure alternative funding.
Why?
Simply put, the public’s taste and tolerance for this sort of thing has changed. Americans no longer feel compelled to stay quiet about adult men crawling nude on all fours to celebrate sexual perversion.
Why The Taste Change?
And why did the public’s taste change?
A few resons. I’m sure of that. Certainly seeing perversions read to children and grotesque displays in parades was part of it.
But I would argue that the Church’s insistence that homosexuality and other perversions is a sin and bad for humanity is why people realized it was wrong. At some point, probably when men pretending to be women were beating up women in sports and trans story hours were happening, our correctness became evident.
In other words, Christians were yelling about these issues for a long time. Then, when Drag Shows were being done for children a whole lot of people saw the value in what we were saying.
Mediate Vs Immediate Cause
We tend to think about the immediate circumstances that led to an event. In this case, we look at political and legal pressures, funding issues, and corporate pullbacks from these events.
But why did this take place?
Is it not from the speeches at school board meetings? Protests at Drag Shows Story hours? Work done to upend the mutilation of children?
Weren’t these things and other things like them a huge part of the pull away from supporting these events?
Was it not due to answered prayers? Was it not due to preaching and teaching about the sinfulness of such things?
They didn’t shut down due to funding cuts this year. What happened over the last few years caused those budget shortfalls and pressures.
If you are a Christian that has been speaking out and praying for this to happen for the last 5 or more years, then you were a part of something. You were doing something and are starting to see a victory or two in the battle. You’re starting to have some things to smile about in this endeavor.
Smile Once In A While
Have you ever known someone that, no matter the good they receive, will complain and complain about their life situation?
Well, Christians need to stop being like that. It’s not as if the battle is over. We will fight until our lives are over.
But we do need to look around and realize that everything is not quite as gay as it was last year. Everything is different this year. Shopping, commercials, kids shows, it seems better.
And that’s something to smile about.
Listen, if you were to tell me in 2022 that the rainbow brigade would be upset at Target for not supporting them I would never have believed you. But here we are.
R. Dwain Minor
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