Business of Pride 2025
I remember a time, late in the last decade, when tech companies saw the San Francisco Pride march as one more field of competition. Who could field the largest contingent? The loudest T-shirts? The biggest and most outrageous floats? And, crucially, the most eye-roll-inducing queer-dad-joke names for their employee resource groups?
Those seem like such innocent times in retrospect. Companies haven't just pulled their floats and their funding for Pride, they've retreated on decades of progress in policies that recognize hateful speech for what it is. If we were to award a prize for Corporate Shame, it might go to Meta, which shamelessly included the anti-LGBTQ dog-whistle term "transgenderism" in its revised, anything-goes policy that allows users of its social-media apps to claim — falsely and against medical science — that homosexuality is a mental illness.
For me, this change is a reminder that Pride is not only a celebration, it is also a protest. There is more to protest against now, as revisionist policies sweep away hard-won recognition and protections for some of the most vulnerable parts of the LGBTQ community.
As a member of that community but also a journalist, I have to look at the world as it is, not as I might wish it to be. Our 11th annual Business of Pride issue reflects some of those hard realities: the heart of gay San Francisco wrestling with its identity as a neighborhood and the nonprofit behind the Pride march and celebration hustling to make the numbers work.
But we also found much to celebrate. Lyft, our Corporate Pride winner, stands out for standing fast to its principles. Niko Storment has built a career as an event producer by embracing queer joy. Thomas Forbes bought a candy shop in North Beach and plans to, in his words, "gay it up."
And the life story of Andy Cramer, our Legacy Leader honoree, highlights how so many LGBTQ people have found the freedom to be themselves, to make a living and to find a calling in the Bay Area.
I'd like to thank Simon Campbell, special projects editor; photographer Adam Pardee; Ari Mahrer, data reporter; and staff reporter Alex Barreira for their hard work on this special issue. Their effort fills me with even more pride.
It is my honor as a gay man to bring you our annual Business of Pride issue. Whatever Pride means to you, I hope you find it in this season. And I hope you find reasons to celebrate, even in the midst of struggle. It's how our community has always gotten through tough times.
— Owen Thomas, Managing Editor
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