Meta is absent from SF Pride this year, as tech industry retreats from public support of LGBTQ+

CEO Mark Zuckerberg is staying mum these days when it comes to the LGBTQ+ community. It wasn’t always that way.

San Francisco Pride Executive Director Suzanne Ford told CNBC she remembers when Zuckerberg personally called the nonprofit to ensure that the company then known as Facebook had a spot at the annual event. As the world’s largest LGBTQ+ parade, the SF Pride event has become a symbol representing advocacy and social justice for members of the community.

In 2015, SF Pride was prohibiting Facebook from marching at the event because of the company’s policies that required people to use their legal names on the social network, Ford said. Members of the LGBTQ+ community were worried that bad actors were exploiting the company’s account policy by reporting transgender Facebook users and others who no longer identify by their legal names.

After Facebook updated the policy, Zuckerberg called SF Pride’s then-executive director George Ridgely to ask him that Facebook be included in the parade, Ford said.

The relationship between SF Pride and Meta has since splintered.