THE GUARDIAN: Guardian analysis of 20 major companies in UK and US shows mentions of Pride on social media have fallen substantially in past two years
The UK’s biggest businesses are rolling back their public support for Pride celebrations, Guardian analysis suggests, prompting warnings that “clear signals” are needed in the face of growing global LGBTQ+ hostility.
Analysis of social media posts by the country’s biggest companies found mentions of Pride had plummeted by 92% since 2023, mirroring a trend seen in large American firms.
The findings come after the US president, Donald Trump, signed a series of executive orders in 2025 that overturned federal government diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes, leading companies on both sides of the Atlantic to rebrand, scale back and even scrap fairness policies.
The Guardian analysed the main customer-facing social media accounts of the 10 biggest UK-listed or headquartered companies, and the 10 biggest US companies by market capitalisation.
Among the British brands were the technology company Arm Holdings, the pharmaceutical firms AstraZeneca and GSK, the nicotine products company British American Tobacco, HSBC bank, the chemicals company Linde, the defence and engineering company Rolls-Royce, the oil company Shell and the food conglomerate Unilever. » | Chris Osuh, Raphael Boyd and Geneva Abdul | Monday, December 22, 2025
The slide backwards for LGBT rights is all because of the corrupt dude in the White House. You know, the convicted sex offender, the one who likes pussy. It’s okay for him to “grab women by the pussy”, but it’s not okay for gays to fall in love with people of the same sex, for them to fall in love with, and be attracted to, people of the same sex, the way God created them. Strange that! In Trump’s America, there are different standards for different kinds of people. There are different standards for the rich and for the poor, and different standards for heterosexuals and different standards for homosexuals. There are even different standards for homosexuals, depending on whether they are haves or have-nots. We know this, because there are plenty of people near the top of Trump’s regime who are queer. What a disgusting man Trump is! He’s turning the clocks back to yesteryear. What poor judgment Americans have in choosing their presidents! That companies are following Trump’s lead into darkness shows us all only just how weak and fawning these so-called titans of the business world really are. Perhaps the best thing is to boycott their products wherever and whenever possible. The pink pound and pink dollar are mighty. — © Mark Alexander
