As institutional support for ESG and DEI initiatives continues to wane, evidenced by major corporations scaling back or withdrawing sponsorship of Pride events and merchandise, advocacy groups are responding with new polls and studies claiming broad public backing.
Multiple reports from 2025–2026 document sharp declines in corporate funding for Pride celebrations, with cities like San Francisco facing $200,000+ shortfalls, New York City down ~20% ($750k), and numerous organizers citing pullbacks from sponsors like Mastercard, Pepsi, Anheuser-Busch, and others due to economic pressures and political risks.
In contrast, GLAAD’s 2026 Pride Poll asserts a “supermajority” of Americans support brands participating in Pride, with findings like 68% agreeing companies should show support for the LGBTQ+ community if they choose and 62% comfortable with employee participation in parades.
We can expect more such studies touting widespread ESG/DEI support in the coming months, but they should be viewed with skepticism amid the broader replication crisis in social science research. Stephen Soukup highlights how much of the academic foundation for ESG rests on shaky ground. A highly influential 2014 paper by Eccles, Ioannou, and Serafeim, which was widely cited to argue that “high sustainability” companies outperform others and used by policymakers and investors, subsequently failed to replicate. Its causal claims collapsed after scrutiny revealed methodological issues, including a “typo” that inflated significance.
This fits a larger pattern of irreproducible findings in social sciences, where fraud or errors affect a notable share of papers, undermining claims that ESG reliably boosts financial performance.
Soukup also points to a recent positive development in Nebraska. The state’s public pension system narrowly avoided a proxy voting policy framed as “neutral” that would have required abstention on social and political (including ESG/DEI) shareholder proposals—effectively favoring existing activist practices. After pushback from public fiduciaries, including State Auditor Mike Foley and Treasurer Joey Spellerberg, the Nebraska Investment Council shifted toward guidelines focused on economic value, directing votes against proposals advancing social or political agendas. This underscores the importance of fiduciary duty over performative neutrality.
In short, declining real-world corporate enthusiasm is being met with narrative counter-efforts, but the shaky replicability of core ESG research advises caution.