HRC criticizes companies who have ended DEI programs due to right-wing pressure
HRC president Kelley Robinson speaks to Tribe at the “Slay Hate : Fight Back Tennessee rally” in Nashville, Tenn. on Thursday, March 9,2023. Photo: Nicole Hester/USA TODAY NETWORK by IMAGN
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has criticized companies like Molson Coors, Ford, and others for “abandoning their values and backtracking from commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)” following right-wing pressure campaigns.
The HRC concurrently released new survey data showing that rollbacks on DEI from large corporations in recent years are wildly unpopular with LGBTQ+ individuals and alienating many consumers. The data was released in response to a far-right activist, conspiracy theorist Robby starbuck, who allegedly caused a number of prominent companies, including Ford, Lowe’s and Harley-Davidson, to drastically scale back their DEI initiatives through public pressure campaigns. Starbuck has more than half a million followers in X. He reportedly believes chemicals in tapwater are making kids gay.
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“The LGBTQ+ community is an economic powerhouse, and we want to work for and support companies who support us. Orlando Gonzales, Senior VP of Programs, Research, and Training, at the HRC, said in an emailed message that attacks on DEI initiatives were shortsighted and made our workplaces safer and less inclusive for Americans of all backgrounds and demographics. “This new data confirms that companies like Molson Coors, Ford, and others that abandon their values and backtrack from commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion risk losing both top employee talent and consumer dollars.”
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According to the data, 80.1% of LGBTQ+ adults said that they would boycott a company that rolled back DEI measures, with 75.7% of LGBTQ+ adults having a less favorable view of such a company. Over half (52,5%) said they would encourage others to boycott the company, while a similar number (51.7%) would delete any app, profile, or credit card they have with them. Nearly 28% of respondents said they would join a protest or sign a petition against the company too.
Additionally, 72.4% of LGBTQ+ adults said they’d feel less supported by their company if their workplace rolled back inclusion efforts for the community, 66.6% said they’d feel less safe, and 54% said they’d experience a decline in their mental health. A third of participants said they’d be less productive, and 19.6% said they’d look for a different job entirely.
Meanwhile, over 95% of LGBTQ+ adults said that their company scoring high on HRC’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI) — a measure of LGBTQ+-inclusive company policies — would mean they feel their company supports the community. Half said that a CEI score of 100% would mean there’s strong support for the community.
The data similarly reflected that LGBTQ+ community members feel supported by companies that sponsor Pride parades, hire out leadership, donate to LGBTQ+ nonprofits, make community outreach efforts, and feature queer representation in their marketing and product development.
The President of the Human Rights Campaign, Kelley Robinson, said that Starbuck is a “MAGA bully and Republican-reject” whose “only business experience is hawking vitamins marketed by people profiting off of COVID disinformation.”
The HRC also referenced data from a Washington Post-Ipsos poll that found that most Americans support DEI measures and feel that these measures better support marginalized people while helping guarantee significant outreach to the public.
The survey was done in collaboration with Community Marketing & Insights (CMI) between August 8-18. The survey was conducted in collaboration with Community Marketing & Insights (CMI) between August 8-18. The data was collected from 2,490 respondents in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Washington, D.C., of which 2,432 were eligible to participate. The HRC weighted the data to reflect the entire United States population, based on age and race/ethnicity. Also, the data were compared to the Census data and the PRRI 2023 American Values Atlas. The weighting was performed using Stata and verified by hand calculations. The margin of error for the survey is +/- 4,6%.
