Google and Meta do not meet the requirements to partner with the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, the organisation has said, after the two tech giants ended their official involvement and ditched diversity obligations in the US.
At the 47th annual Mardi Gras parade up Oxford Street next Saturday, a notable absence will be the two tech firms, previously event sponsors.
When Sydney hosted the biannual World Pride global event in 2023, Meta sent a float to the parade. It was a media partner for last year’s Mardi Gras; Google was a supporting partner.
The two companies have this year curtailed their spending on Mardi Gras, Guardian Australia has confirmed, and are not sponsoring the event in any capacity.
Neither company would comment on the shift but it is understood that the costs of sponsorship were a factor for at least one of them – rather than the move away from diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the US since Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Mardi Gras disputed the level of funding that Guardian Australia was told would be required for companies to sponsor a float and partner with the festival.
Last year Mardi Gras received $3.5m in sponsorship income, organisers said – about $464,000 less than expected, which was blamed on a slowing economy and the cancellation of the Fair Day cultural event in Victoria Park amid concerns about asbestos in mulch.
Though Meta and Google have withdrawn of their own accord, a spokesperson for Mardi Gras said the companies would not now meet the festival’s criteria for partners.
“Partnership values are assessed based on the scale of the festival and an organisation’s commitment to the community,” the spokesperson said. “They are not always monetary in value and are underpinned by the ethical charter process – one that neither Google nor Meta currently meets the requirements of.”
The Mardi Gras website says: “We want to partner with industry leaders in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – who champion DEI as an integral part of their organisation and culture.”
Meta’s revision of its hateful conduct policy now allows users on Facebook and Instagram to accuse transgender or gay people of being “mentally ill”.
The Guardian reported last week that internally in Meta, the decline of the company’s diversity goals began with the departure of the chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg in 2022.
Google announced this month it was scaling back its diversity initiatives and removing LGBTQ+ holidays from its online and mobile calendars.
Other companies remain involved in the parade. Canva is partnering with the event, TikTok is supporting LGBTQ+ creators and the ABC will be broadcasting the parade live on its TikTok account.
Amazon has taken part in Mardi Gras activities under the banner of “Glamazon” and participated in Fair Day this year, as it has in previous years, despite announcing in January that it was winding back diversity initiatives in the US. The Australian Amazon website still provides information about diversity initiatives.
Other large companies including American Express and Coles are listed as partners for the event.
Anna Brown, chief executive of Australia’s peak LGBTQ+ lobbying organisation, Equality Australia, said all corporations who participate in the parade “should be demonstrating support for their LGBTIQ+ staff and our broader community, not just one day of the year but every day”.
A spokesperson for activist group Pride in Protest, Damien Nguyen, said corporate participation in Mardi Gras had “never been about inclusion or community, it has always been about pinkwashing”.
Nguyen, who is also a member of the Mardi Gras board, said corporate interests were “drowning out the protest roots of community events like Mardi Gras”.
Aside from the annual debate about the inclusion of police and politicians in the parade, the involvement of corporations in Mardi Gras – an event that originated in 1978 – has frequently been a source of controversy.
During World Pride, Guardian Australia revealed that Meta was taking part in the parade while also taking thousands of dollars from Australian groups promoting anti-LGBTQ advertising on Facebook and Instagram.
Roughly 10% of the Mardi Gras floats represent corporate partners.
Google and Meta would be eligible to partner with the organisation in the future provided they could demonstrate how they met the requirements of its ethical charter.
• This article was amended on 20 February 2025. A previous version incorrectly stated that Amazon had a stall at Fair Day in 2025. Amazon participated in Fair Day, but did not have a stall. The article was further amended on 21 February 2025 to remove a contested statement about Mardi Gras, that the event originated as a protest against police violence.
