June Bug

Top of Mind

Pride, But Make It Profitable (And Then Pull the Funding)

Once upon a time, Pride was a riot (literally). Now it’s brought to you by vodka, telecoms, and your local bank offering rainbow debit cards.

And while the floats are fabulous and the giveaways are generous, the question lingers: has Pride lost its, well... pride?

In Columbus, that question’s not just rhetorical, it’s financial. Stonewall Columbus, the nonprofit behind one of the Midwest’s biggest Pride events, is down $150,000 in corporate sponsorship this year. Lowe’s, Nissan, Anheuser-Busch, and Walmart, companies that once proudly marched, posted, and rainbow-wrapped their brands, are now quietly backing away.

Why? Depends on who you ask. Some blame budget cuts. Others say “strategic realignment.” But Densil Porteous, Stonewall’s executive director, puts it plainly: “We’re seeing companies pull back from DEI because of what’s coming out of statehouses, and the White House.”

Translation: Corporate America is nervous. DEI, once a boardroom buzzword, has become a political third rail. And in a year when LGBTQ+ rights are once again a campaign punching bag, many brands are choosing silence over solidarity.

But here’s the thing: this isn’t just about a parade. Pride funds year-round services, housing support, suicide prevention, and healthcare navigation for a community that still faces daily threats. When sponsors pull out, it’s not just floats that get cut. It’s lifelines.

And the timing couldn’t be worse.

Across Ohio, LGBTQ+ centers at public universities have been shut down. Federal funding for queer history projects has dried up. Trans rights are under legislative attack. And efforts to erase LGBTQ+ people from classrooms and libraries are gaining traction.

Stonewall Columbus saw the storm coming. So they secured a $276,000 grant from Franklin County, not to grow the festival, but to keep it alive. Let that sink in. In one of the country’s largest Pride celebrations, public dollars are now backstopping what corporate dollars abandoned.

And what about those brands? Some say they still support LGBTQ+ employees, just... internally. Walmart says its associates will volunteer in June. Nissan is “reevaluating spending.” Translation: We support you, just not out loud. And not this quarter.

Porteous has seen this playbook before. June-only allies. Rainbow logos without policy change. Visibility without action.

But Pride isn’t supposed to be safe, quiet, or convenient. It started as a protest, loud, messy, and unapologetic. The original Stonewall wasn’t sponsored. It was led by Black and brown trans people who risked everything because their lives weren’t up for debate.

Today, Columbus Pride draws over 700,000 people. That visibility matters. So does joy. But so does honesty. If Pride becomes just a branded block party, stripped of history, purpose, and protest, it loses the very thing that made it powerful in the first place.

Yes, the floats will still roll. The flags will fly. But we should all be asking: who’s paying for it? Who’s benefitting? And who’s still showing up after the glitter is swept off High Street?

Because the truth is, some companies were never here for the movement. Just the moment. And now that allyship is less profitable, they’re gone.

But the community? The real one? It's still here. It organizes, fundraises, shelters, counsels, and defends. It marches when there are cameras, and when there aren’t. It remembers that Pride saves lives, not because of sponsorship decks, but because of the people who never stopped showing up.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: When was Columbus, Ohio’s first Pride Parade

A) 2002
B) 1994
C) 1987
D) 1981

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Ohio: Land of Buckeyes, Ball, and Bets
(Now with 98% more mobile apps and fewer shady bookies)

Ohio may be known for cornfields, college football, and screaming at traffic lights, but quietly (and legally), we've added another favorite pastime to the mix: gambling.

And we’re not talking about your grandma’s scratch-offs. According to a recent study by Legal US Poker Sites (yes, that’s a real website and not a student loan scam), Ohio is now the fourth-most gambling-obsessed state in America, behind Nevada (duh), Pennsylvania, and New York. With more than 70,000 annual searches for gambling terms, we’ve officially made betting a lifestyle, right up there with chili on spaghetti and pretending we’re not cold in 50-degree weather.

Let’s talk numbers:

• $3.3 billion in casino revenue last year.
  

• $8.9 billion wagered on sports in 2024, up nearly 16% from the year before.
  

• That made us the fourth-largest sports betting market in the country. Not bad for a state that didn’t even legalize it until 2023.
  

And guess what? Nearly all of that action, a staggering 98%, happened online. Ohioans love a good parlay, and they love it even more when they can place it from the toilet. FanDuel and DraftKings practically run the show, turning smartphones into slot machines you never have to plug in.

It’s not just who’s betting, it’s who’s becoming a bettor. Since 2019, the average casino-goer has gotten eight years younger. The new crowd is more millennial than retiree, more pre-workout than post-bingo. It’s brunch, spin class, bet the over. We’re not just placing bets, we’re optimizing them.

But before we get too caught up in the high of a perfectly hit same-game parlay, let’s talk consequences.

Experts estimate that 2.5 million Americans already struggle with severe gambling addiction, and another 5 to 8 million are somewhere on the spiral. And as mobile betting continues to rise, so do concerns about problem gambling, especially when it’s this convenient. The upside of legal gambling? You have access to tools like deposit limits and self-exclusion lists. The downside? The Browns still exist.

To Ohio’s credit, the state does impose a 20% tax on sports betting operators, with some of that money funneled toward schools and programs aimed at curbing addiction. Because nothing says “responsible governance” like using your sportsbook cut to keep third graders reading.

So yes, Ohio was late to the gambling game. We didn’t legalize casinos until 2009 or sports betting until 2023. But once we did? We went all in.

And if you’re placing odds on whether this betting boom is slowing down anytime soon?

Don’t bet on it.

Local Food Brought to you Locally!

Before it was delivering chef-crafted meals across Central Ohio, Visionary Meals was just one hungry college football player trying to juggle practices, midterms, and macros.

Meet Josh. Sociology major at Wittenberg. Four-year athlete. And the guy who accidentally stumbled into meal prep as a lifestyle because there simply wasn’t time not to. What started as survival cooking turned into a system. And then a business.

By 2018, Josh had taken his kitchen hustle back home to Granville, Ohio, and built something bigger than a side project. Visionary Meals launched with a simple goal: feed people well, without wasting their time or their values.

Today, Visionary serves thousands across the region, delivering fresh, locally sourced meals to convenient pickup spots every week. The dishes are crafted by chefs. The ingredients are often Ohio-grown. And the mission? Still grounded in faith, purpose, and community.

This isn’t about meal kits that rot in your fridge or calorie math disguised as dinner. Visionary is for working parents, gym goers, and anyone who just really doesn’t want to meal prep on Sunday night. No subscriptions. No nonsense. Just real food that respects your time.

What makes them different? The integrity. The local sourcing. The roots in a family farm. And the belief that feeding people well can still be personal.

Healthy, done honestly. That’s the Visionary way. Visionary Meals!

We can offer 'Visionary15' as a discount code for 15% off for readers! 

Trivia Answer:

D) 1981 (44 Years) theyll be more facts throughout the month!