Funding For Pride Event Down Following Federal, State Initiatives To End Support For DEI

Image Credit: Nashville Pride / Facebook

The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –

Organizers for Nashville Pride report having lost several longtime supporters ahead of their 2025 event.

With a “significant budget gap to fill” the board of directors is calling on all participants to step up by donating, volunteering, becoming a sponsor, and to “show up where others have stepped back.”

Since President Donald Trump’s executive order at the beginning of the year which ended government support for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, organizations in Tennessee have scrubbed DEI language from their websites and budgets for DEI spending are allegedly way down.

At the state level, the Tennessee General Assembly also passed legislation earlier this year aimed at stopping DEI programs in hiring practices and also cracking down on DEI departments in governmental and public institutions.

The “Dismantle DEI in Employment Act” ensures that hiring decisions for local governments, local school districts, and public institutions of higher education be based on merit rather than on any other metric such as race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disability. The new law encourages hiring decisions to be based on selecting “highly qualified” candidates rather than hiring an individual to achieve DEI goals.

A second law prohibits departments, agencies, or other units of state government or political subdivisions of the state from maintaining or authorizing offices or departments that promote or require discriminatory preferences to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The pushback against DEI in the public sector is influencing the corporate world as well, with corporate sponsors reporting having a fraction of previous budgets to spend on DEI events.

Once used only as a means of support for aiding specific communities, the remaining dollars in these slim budgets is now being tied to how exposure at events can benefit the corporation.

And for some corporations that are still giving, they no longer want to be acknowledged for their contribution, perhaps fearing political backlash.

Conservative Tennessee activist Robby Starbuck made a considerable impact on corporate DEI policies last year, calling out donations to Pride events from companies such as Lowe’s, Jack Daniel’s, Indian Motorcycle, and Polaris.

Starbuck’s efforts also led to Harley-Davidson, John Deere, and Tractor Supply making corporate statements on how the companies would shift their policies to limit or entirely eliminate DEI altogether.

About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.