Seattle Pride cuts ties with Amazon over company’s political contributions
Mar 23, 2022, 12:15 PM
Seattle Pride Parade 2018. (KIRO Radio file photo)
(KIRO Radio file photo)
Seattle Pride announced this week that it would be cutting ties with Amazon as a corporate sponsor for its annual parade, citing donations made by the company to “anti-LGBTQIA+ politicians.”
According to a report from the Seattle Times, Amazon had offered $100,000 to sponsor this year’s event, on the condition that it would be branded as the “Seattle Pride Parade presented by Amazon.” But after conducting a larger evaluation of its corporate sponsors’ political contributions and public stances, Seattle Pride ultimately opted to rebuff the offer.
“As Seattle Pride continues to grow, it is our duty to partner with corporate organizations which actively support the LGBTQIA+ community, and whose values align with our own,” the group detailed in a lengthy written statement explaining its decision.
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Seattle Pride points to a handful of recent contributions made by Amazon, including $450,000 to lawmakers who voted against the Equality Act in Congress — which would have prohibited discrimination of anyone based on their sex, sexual identity, and gender identity — as well as a combined $966,500 to a collection of nearly 200 members of Congress who had received an “F” grade from the Human Rights Campaign.
Amazon also contributed thousands of dollars to sponsors behind bills in the state Legislature that sought to ban trans athletes from competing in school sports, place prison inmates in correctional facilities that correspond with their assigned gender at birth, and prohibit the teaching of critical race theory in public schools.
“We simply cannot partner with any organization actively harming our community through the support of discriminatory laws and politics,” Seattle Pride said.
As of now, Amazon is the only sponsor the group has decided to cut ties with, but it does plan to continue evaluating all of its corporate partners in the weeks ahead.
