Durham County, North Carolina, has opted to end its years-long lead sponsorship of the city’s annual Pride celebration for fear of losing federal funding under the Trump administration.

Officials with the county told North Carolina Public Radio station WUNC that the decision came in response to President Donald Trump’s January 20 anti-DEI executive order. Durham County Board of Commissioners chair Nida Allam said the order is so “vague” and “inexplicable” that it’s unclear whether using county money to sponsor this weekend’s Pride: Durham, NC event would jeopardize $200 million in funding the county receives from the federal government.

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“We unfortunately are living under an unhinged administration of Trump 2.0,” Allam said. “They’re putting the biggest pressure on local governments, especially that are blue like Durham County.”

“We obviously stand and support with Pride, and all of us commissioners are going to be still participating in Pride in our own capacities,” Allam added. But, she explains, the decision came down to weighing the risk to the county’s 330,000 residents if it were to lose such a huge portion of its budget.

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Allam also noted that those federal funds help support the county’s LGBTQ+ community year-round, through public health services, food assistance, and other programs, according to WUNC.

“It’s a very nuanced, very difficult situation. It is a fact of reality,” Vanity Reid-Deterville, co-executive director of the LGBTQ Center of Durham, which celebrates its 10th anniversary next month, told local ABC affiliate WTVD. “We have to be very realistic about the pressures that many sectors of society right now are experiencing as a result of their support. There are streams of financial stability. It’s all being jeopardized. It’s having a lasting impact, and we haven’t completely seen all of the fallout of these executive decisions.”

While the county will not sponsor this year’s event, the City of Durham will. And Pride: Durham, NC organizing committee chair Jesse Huddleston told WUNC that organizers appreciate the fact that county commissioners still intend to be among the 15,000 people expected to attend the celebration in Downtown Durham from September 26 to 28. And, according to WUNC, the county will still provide logistical support and a mobile health unit.

“I’m able to understand some of the dynamics they are under,” Huddleston told the outlet. “They’re responsible for a lot of people and a lot of programs. That’s not to say it’s fair that LGBTQ people and programs aren’t getting the public visible support that we deserve. This is not about what we deserve, this is about doing what we can to preserve the resources coming our way.”

Pride celebrations across the country, including in major markets like New York and San Francisco, have reported significant budget shortfalls this year, as corporations rolled back their contributions to LGBTQ+ events in the wake of Trump’s executive order. In April, Gravity Research found that 39 percent of companies surveyed said they planned to reduce Pride-related engagement for 2025. Senior corporate leaders cited fear of potential investigations by the Trump administration over DEI as their top reason for pulling back on Pride marketing.

Both Reid-Deterville and Huddleston noted that Pride events, like Durham’s, are an act of political resistance.

“Whenever queer people take space publicly, that is a political act, it’s always at risk of a threat,” Huddleston told WUNC. “It is not just a parade. It’s a march.”

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