Ford Motors and Lowe’s Hardware Dump LGBTQ Support
CNN, Ford Motor Company’s CEO Jim Farley announced to employees last Wednesday that the automotive giant had changed several of its policies.The company’s employee resource groups would stop focusing on identity and halt participation in external surveys, including the Human Rights Campaign’s “Corporate Equality Index,” which rates companies on their LGBTQ workplace nondiscrimination policies and employee benefits.“We are mindful that our employees and customers hold a wide range of beliefs, and the external and legal environment related to political and social issues continues to evolve,” Farley wrote in the email.
He noted that the company does not “utilize hiring quotas or tie compensation to the achievement of specific diversity goals,” does not use “quotas [to] develop a dealer body that reflects the communities they serve,” has shifted the focus of employee resource groups to focus on networking, mentorship, professional development, and community service, and does not limit membership in any employee resource group to anyone based on individual characteristics.Farley insisted that Ford remains committed to creating an “inclusive workspace and building a team that leverages diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and thinking styles.”Right-wing activist Robby Starbuck posted a copy of Farley’s email on X, claiming that the company — like others — had changed its policies after he had informed them he was looking into their policies.Here is @Ford’s full statement I received this morning.
Sanity is coming for corporate America. pic.twitter.com/sqoJ8KPGHT— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) August 28, 2024Starbuck has been the driving force behind boycotts of companies that embrace DEI or pro-LGBTQ policies, including Tractor Supply Co., John Deere, and motorcycle giant Harley-Davidson.Due to threats of boycotts, the companies all scuttled their DEI policies and severed ties with the Human Rights Campaign.Brown-Forman, the parent company of popular whiskey brand Jack.
