Meta not expected at SF Pride 2025, executive director says

  • by John Ferrannini, Assistant Editor
  • Thursday January 30, 2025
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Meta's Facebook contingent marched in the 2019 San Francisco Pride parade but is not expected to participate at this year's event. Photo: Rick Gerharter
Meta's Facebook contingent marched in the 2019 San Francisco Pride parade but is not expected to participate at this year's event. Photo: Rick Gerharter

San Francisco Pride doesn't expect social media giant Meta will be participating in this year's parade, the group's executive director stated to the Bay Area Reporter Thursday. However, the reason is not because of the recent uproar over the company ending fact-checking and the removal of long-standing hate speech policies on its social media platforms.

Meanwhile, another Pride organization in the Midwest dropped a major retailer as a sponsor and raised even more money in the aftermath.

In San Francisco, Pride Executive Director Suzanne Ford, a trans woman, stated in an email to the B.A.R., "We stand with the community in recognizing these recent changes as the backsliding they are," but she explained that Meta did not participate in 2024's San Francisco parade.

"Most or all of our internal contacts, queer employees, are gone," Ford stated about the organization's relationship with the company. "We don't expect Meta to return to our celebration or parade in 2025."

Ford stated that Meta last marched in the San Francisco Pride parade in 2023.

"There is not currently any proposed action for the board to vote or come to consensus on, and so it is unlikely that an open discussion on this issue will take place at any upcoming meeting," Ford continued. "The board does review corporate participation annually, however, those discussions are often had at the committee level or in executive session as current and ongoing contracts may be discussed."

Ford did welcome public comment at the meetings of the SF Pride board of directors. The next one is Wednesday, February 5, at 7 p.m. on Google Meet.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on January 7 announced a loosening of the rules over hate speech and abuse on the platforms — which include Facebook and Instagram — citing "recent elections," the Associated Press reported. Zuckerberg also dropped fact-checking in favor of a "Community Notes" system that X installed after Elon Musk purchased the company formerly known as Twitter in 2022.

Meta did not respond to a request for comment regarding its participation in SF Pride.

In addition to Facebook and Instagram, Meta also owns Threads, Messenger, and WhatsApp.

Then-President Joe Biden called out Meta's changes during his January 15 farewell address to the nation, in the section in which he warned about an "oligarchy taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that really threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedom," and a "tech-industrial complex."

Zuckerberg, a guest of honor at President Donald Trump's inauguration, said on Joe Rogan's podcast that Biden White House officials would "call up the guys on our team and yell at them ... cursing and threatening repercussions if we [didn't] take down things that [were] true."

As part of the policy changes at Meta, it clarified in its community standards that "we do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like 'weird.'"

The California Legislative Diversity Caucuses, including the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus, condemned the changes in a news release January 22.

"It is abhorrent that such a policy allows for blatant misinformed, hateful rhetoric targeting our communities," the caucuses' joint statement reads. "Statements such as labeling women 'personal property,' LGBTQ+ individuals as 'mentally ill,' immigrants as 'filthy,' Jewish people as 'greedy,' and more are both dangerous and fuel hostile stereotypes that have been used to justify violence against our communities."

The California Legislative LGBTQ caucus didn't return a request for additional comment.

In an op-ed for the San Francisco Standard, gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) — who has faced homophobic and antisemitic hate speech on social media, as well as threats of physical violence — called out Zuckerberg.

"Putting a target on LGBTQ people is wrong," Wiener stated. "It's a concerning sign of how willing some large companies are to scapegoat minorities in order to gain favor with authoritarian leaders. The real-world impacts of these policy changes will be enormous. When I was first targeted in 2020, the avalanche of QAnon-fueled death threats and abuse was intense. Many of them came through YouTube, which has limited content moderation."

(YouTube is owned by Google.)

Wiener was asked about what he thinks of Meta at Pride events.

"We're in a moment in time when people and corporations show us who they are," he stated to the B.A.R. "Will they support LGBTQ people when it's not politically convenient to do so? Trump is consolidating power by demanding corporate loyalty to his extremist agenda, and Target and Meta folded like cheap tents. It's a gut punch, but we'll brush ourselves off and fight for our community's survival without these fickle friends. And we will remember who stood with us when it mattered."

Most recently, Meta agreed January 29 to pay $25 million as part of a legal settlement with Trump after the company shut down his accounts in the aftermath of the January 6, 2021 insurrection. NBC News reported that Meta spokesperson Andy Stone confirmed the terms: a $25 million payment from the company, with $22 million going toward a fund for Trump's presidential library and the balance dedicated to legal fees and other plaintiffs in the case.

The settlement does not require Meta to admit wrongdoing, NBC News reported.

This year's San Francisco Pride weekend takes place Saturday and Sunday, June 28-29, with the world-famous parade Sunday. The theme is "Queer Joy is Resistance."

Target dropped in Minneapolis

The general backlash to diversity, equity, and inclusion — led by the Trump White House — has eviscerated programs at companies nationwide after Trump's election — as quickly as the movement for racial justice in 2020 led to them blossoming.

After Minneapolis-based Target Corporation announced the end of some DEI policies January 24, Twin Cities Pride ditched the retailer, The Advocate reported. Target had been a major corporate sponsor of Twin Cities Pride and the company had pledged $50,000, but the Pride organization quickly raised over $89,000 after the split, the LGBTQ publication reported.

Updated, 1/31/25: This article has been updated to state that Meta last marched in the San Francisco Pride parade in 2023, and with comments from state Senator Scott Wiener.

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