Some companies have pulled back on sponsorship. Think Bud Light, etc. after the boycotts that very much hurt their bottom line. The Right has been successful in recent years at pressuring companies who sponsor Pride activities. Even those who are still donating are doing so in less overtly visible ways. With Trump's election, it's gone into overdrive. Company's will pinkwash only when they feel it's to their benefit. If not, they won't. Their support is always contingent on their bottom line.
Pride in recent years have been taken over by various sub-causes that have created friction in the community. Some of it has been ugly. Whether it was tension between LGBT law enforcement organizations during the BLM years, anti-Jewish sentiment in the wake of the Gaza War, etc. There's always something leaking in, and people are a little tired of it. People want to celebrate LGBT progress in a safe environment, but the political atmosphere has grown strident and disinclusive of late. It couldn't be enough to be LGBT supportive. Now you have to have an ever more specific ideology to feel accepted. People are opting out because they're tired of the community getting hijacked for the cause of the moment.
And finally, there's just a kind of meh feeling about an event that has largely become another overly corporate, money-making scheme that is increasingly a kind of tourist attraction for bored straight people. This is more of a niche complaint, but over time I see less and less of my friends - young and old - interested in these large events. Pride is much more about the smaller events, the smaller parties, the jams organized over social media. Sure, the main event will get your celebrities and influencers out there. (Every contestant from Ru Paul's Drag Race ever has to make money somewhere), but it is, dare I say, a little played out.
Mix in some intracommunity tension I absolutely won't discuss on DU for various reasons. Yeah. Pride's not what it was. I wouldn't be scared to go to a Pride event. I'd just be bored by it. There's nothing going on there that is not being done more cheaply and more interestingly by smaller groups organized online.
Pride's becoming decentralized over time. Which actually might be a better thing when it comes to impact. Reach people where they are.
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