Revealed: how big businesses are rolling back public support for Pride

The UK’s biggest businesses are rolling back their public support for Pride celebrations, Guardian analysis suggests, prompting warnings that “clear signals” were needed in the face of growing global LGBTQ+ hostility. The decline in support on social media comes as global LGBTQ+ hostility grows.Photograph: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images HSBC says it is ‘committed to inclusion for all our colleagues and customers’.Photograph: Chris Helgren/Reuters Posts about Pride among the UK’s 10 biggest companies fell 92% from 2023 to 2025.Photograph: Alishia Abodunde/Getty Images 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 raft 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. In 2023, a total of 52 posts made on their Facebook, Instagram and X accounts contained the word or hashtag “Pride” - in connection with Pride events, Pride months, weeks and weekends, and employee LGBTQ+ networks. By 2024, the number of posts had dropped by 48% to 27 - falling to just four in 2025, an 85% year-on-year decline and down 92% from 2023’s total. HSBC remained the British company most likely to post on social media about Pride throughout the period analysed - although its posts, mirroring the wider trend, fell by 94%. AstraZeneca, Shell and Unilever were least likely to post about Pride at all from 2023 to 2025. “A tally of social media posts does not reflect the breadth of our approach,” HSBC said in a statement. Our analysis of the top 10 US companies - as of 1 December - revealed a similar trend. A total of 39 “Pride” posts could be found on the main customer-facing Facebook, Instagram and X accounts belonging to Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, Broadcom, Eli Lilly, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla in 2023. In 2024, the total fell 46% to 21 posts. In 2025, the number came in at 18, representing a 54% decline. The most likely US brand to post about Pride was Apple. It was the only company to buck the declining trend, with its post count rising by 22% between 2023 and 2025. The least likely companies to post about Pride included Berkshire Hathaway, Broadcom and Tesla. Simon Blake, chief executive of LGBTQ+ rights charity Stonewall, said “in a world in which LGBT people are feeling less safe and less welcome in lots of...

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