Pride Month Kicks Off With Companies Pulling Back On DEI

Forbes

2 days ago

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It's the start of June and many companies have already scaled back their engagement with LGBTQ Pride.
For the past few years, the beginning of the month was marked by most consumer-facing companies changing their logos to a rainbow-fied version to celebrate the start of Pride Month, as parades across the country were flooded with corporate sponsorships. Some critics called it performative, but as companies pull back from diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives this year—largely because of President Donald Trump's executive orders—employers appear to be quieter in their support of Pride.
There were signs the silence was coming. An April study found that nearly 40% of corporations planned to scale back their Pride engagement this year, and Google pulled Pride Month notifications from Google Calendar earlier in the year.
It's all part of a wider rollback. Indeed, references to DEI at Fortune 100 companies dropped 72% between 2024 and 2025, according to an analysis by Gravity Research.
But employers cutting back on DEI and Pride celebrations doesn't just impact their workers. Companies are also pulling back from Pride parade sponsorships, leading organizers to look to grassroots crowdfunding to fund their events. And some employee resource groups are rebranding to include more than just a protected group of workers.
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Much of the recent news around federal hiring has been focused on the thousands of job cuts across government agencies. Such a massive shakeup has rocked both established and aspiring civil servants. But for those who still want to work for the government, a new application requirement will have candidates answering four essay questions.
How would you help advance President Trump's executive orders?
Those applying to work for the federal government will have to answer that—plus an additional three essay questions—in their application, according to a memo from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The added questions come at a time when thousands of career civil servants have been let go from their positions, with many fighting in court over their dismissals.
According to the OPM, the new application questions—including candidates' plans to improve government efficiency and effectiveness, a hallmark of President Trump's and Elon Musk's DOGE—will apply to positions S-05 and above, a federal pay grade with annual rates as low as $34,454.
Critics of the new requirements say that while the questions don't explicitly ask candidates about their political preferences, which is prohibited under federal law, they can be used to gauge applicants' political leanings.
But the U.S. government isn't the only employer making the application process longer, or harder, with such questions. Pre-hire tests, assessments and essay questions are increasingly popular during the job application process as companies look for ways to weed out AI applicants. Software engineers, for example, often have to complete coding assessments, while marketing experts could be asked to present brand briefs or sample campaigns
News from the world of work.
Before she became the co-CEO of biotech firm Summit Therapeutics, Maky Zanganeh was a dentist, worked in robotic surgery and survived cancer. Now worth $1.5 billion, she is just one of the 100 CEOs, entrepreneurs and entertainers to make Forbes' annual ranking of America's Richest Self-Made Women. Nvidia executives had a particularly good year, with CFO Colette Kress and executive VP of operations Debora Shoquist making the list, worth an estimated $650 million and $360 million, respectively.
The stock market's rise in 2024 was good for CEOs. The average pay for those heading S&P 500 companies rose nearly 10% last year to a median of $17.1 million, according to the AP.
Tech firms are the latest targets of the Trump Administration, as the government looks to cut down on contract spending. Similar to those received by consulting firms, IT providers like Dell and CDW received letters from the General Services Administration asking executives to justify their work and find areas to cut, the Wall Street Journal reports.
A growing number of companies are already replacing human work with AI: Meta is planning to fully automate ad creation, while McKinsey is utilizing its internal AI tools to draft proposals and PowerPoint slides. The embrace of AI could all lead to a 'white-collar' bloodbath, as Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei told Axios last week.
Global payroll startup Deel announced Tuesday it had crossed $1 billion in annual revenue rate as it continues to acquire other companies. The announcement comes in the midst of a legal battle with competitor Rippling, which has accused some of its executives of corporate espionage.
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In sharp contrast to the United States, which European country opened up its border to 1 million immigrants in a bet to keep its economy growing?
A. United Kingdom
B. Ireland
C. Spain
D. Italy
Check if you got it right here.