I am so tired of a small group of Christian nationalists who demand the right to force their religious views and church doctrines on the rest of the country. They want and are working for a Christian theocracy in the US. I just posted about how Kanas pushed a law over the veto of the governor that bans trans markers on drivers licenses and makes all trans drivers licenses that don’t match birth sex of the person immediately void and illegal. All because of refusing to accept the facts and medical science. These attacks on drag are just a way to get at trans people. Drag has a long history in vaudeville, on TV from the beginning of comedy, anyone remembeer flip Wilson who was hallirise as a woman. Hugs.
And while the law doesn’t have language explicitly referencing drag performances, SB 12’s original version specifically included them. Republican leaders have also made it clear that drag shows are the target.
“Texas Governor Signs Law Banning Drag Performances in Public. That’s right,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in a post on X in June 2023.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday reaffirmed a November ruling removing a block on Senate Bill 12 and denied a request by plaintiffs for a rehearing.
Drag Queen Brigitte Bandit performs during a Fight The Trump Takeover Rally at the south side steps of the Capitol on Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025. Ronaldo Bolaños for The Texas T
Texas can enforce a 2023 law that restricts some public drag shows, a federal appeals court reaffirmed in a new ruling on Wednesday.
Senate Bill 12 prohibits drag performers from dancing suggestively or wearing certain prosthetics on public property or in front of children. The law would fine business owners $10,000 for hosting such performances, while those who violate the law could be hit with a Class A misdemeanor.
In September 2023, U.S. District Judge David Hittner declared the law unconstitutional, saying that it “impermissibly infringes on the First Amendment” and that it is “not unreasonable” to think it could affect activities like live theater or dancing. More than two years later in November, a three-judge panel in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unblocked the law and returned the case to the district court.
On Wednesday, the appeals court withdrew its November opinion and reissued a largely identical ruling, denying the plaintiff’s request for a rehearing in the process. SB 12 will now take effect on March 18, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, who represented several of the plaintiffs.
As part of the ruling, the panel found that most of the plaintiffs — a drag performer, a drag production company and pride groups — failed to show that they intended to conduct a “sexually oriented performance,” and therefore, could not be harmed by the law. The ruling suggests that the federal judges don’t believe all drag shows are sexually explicit.
Critics of the ban have previously raised concerns that Republican lawmakers were portraying all drag performances as inherently sexual or obscene.
And while the law doesn’t have language explicitly referencing drag performances, SB 12’s original version specifically included them. Republican leaders have also made it clear that drag shows are the target.
“Texas Governor Signs Law Banning Drag Performances in Public. That’s right,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in a post on X in June 2023.
SB 12 considers a performance to be sexually oriented if the performer is nude or engages in sexual conduct, which could include “actual contact or simulated contact” between one person and another person’s “buttocks, breast, or any part of the genitals.” It also has to “appeal to the prurient interest in sex” — and most didn’t meet this criteria, according to the appeals court’s ruling.
Hey if these people can outright lie about the LGBTQ+ community, willing to let LGBTQ+ kids die or be pushed via violence into the closet hiding who they really were, what is faking your expertise. I already posted about a sexologist who had no experience with trans kids testifying to red state legislatures enabling his bigotry to further the harm to trans kids by giving an excuse for theirs. These people are on a mission that is far from pure but one driven by hate and bigotry to make all kids pretend to be straight and cis in the hope that they can force all adults to pretend to be straight and cis also. If they can’t force the adults to pretend to be straight or cis at least they can stop the trans adults from looking like the gender they identify with in hopes of stopping those that are passing as the gender they identify as. This they hope will mark those people in ways that make their life harder. Again their lies are OK for them because either they think their god approves or their hate is that great so nothing but the mission matters. Hugs
Pippin testifying in favor of book bans at a school board meeting in 2023 (screenshot / YouTube).
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Jennifer Pippin has repeatedly claimed to be an operating room nurse. USA TODAY, the New York Times, TC Palm and other publications have cited her as such. In 2020, Pippin argued that wearing masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 was unnecessary, citing her professional expertise.
“As a registered nurse, I’ve learned a bit. I’ve learned a whole lot more though that they won’t tell you in nursing school,” she wrote in a 2020 Facebook post. “Not wearing a mask is NOT A RISK. Not to me and not to anyone else.”
Pippin, now the chair of one of Moms for Liberty’s (M4L) first chapters in Indian River County, Florida, has also mentioned having “medical licenses” while speaking about the group’s accomplishments at a school board meeting. And in an email chain with Florida’s Department of Education, she wrote that she couldn’t make it to a meeting because she was “operating on a doctors wife.”
(Screenshot received from The Florida Fruit Loop, highlight added).
However, allegations have surfaced that these statements might not be true, and the community is growing frustrated. On Facebook, one user decried “the utter misinformation that has spewed out of [Pippin’s] mouth any time she’s shared her thoughts about public health issues.” Another sarcastically wrote that they were “shocked … to find out Jenny is a liar!!”
“We reported this years ago, but because [M4L] were so powerful politically here in Florida with Ron DeSantis, we had no voice, nobody cared,” Cindy Gibbs, a local parent and former school board candidate, told Uncloseted Media.
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Is She Really a Nurse?
Despite Pippin’s claims of being a nurse, there is a stack of evidence suggesting otherwise. One individual shared screenshots of emails they received from a Florida Department of Health (DOH) official in 2024 after they filed a complaint against Pippin when they noticed her license wasn’t turning up in database searches. In one email, the DOH official states that Pippin had been under investigation since April 1, 2024, for potentially misrepresenting herself as a nurse and that no license had been found.
Uncloseted Media also filed a public records request with the DOH for the license. In an email, they said they were “unable to find anyone licensed by the department matching the information … provided.” The department did not respond to a request for further comment.
In addition, Uncloseted Media was unable to find any license associated with Pippin in the Florida Department of Health’s medical license database or the NURSYS database, which records multi-state licensees. We also checked the certification database for the Competency and Credentialing Institute, which certifies certain specialized nurses including operating room specialists, and found nothing.
While records do exist for Jennifer Hughes Pippin, a nutritionist and dietician at Florida State College in Jacksonville, her listed address and social media profiles do not match the Pippin from Indian River County.
The Florida Nurses Association also did not find any record of Pippin’s membership.
Multiple sources and news articles say Pippin was formerly employed by the Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital. Despite this, Uncloseted Media was unable to confirm she held a position there. The hospital declined to comment on the status of current or former employees as a matter of policy.
The only employment information we found listed for Pippin later than 2021 was in a Sebastian City Council meeting agenda from 2023, where she says she is “self employed” working for Organize Me!, a gig-based home cleaning service.
Why It Matters
Falsely presenting as a nurse is a phenomenon that has been on the rise since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pippin’s case, though, is of particular interest because she is often cited as an influential figure in Florida politics. In her role with M4L, Pippin has filed hundreds of requests to ban books—many of which include LGBTQ or racial justice themes—from school libraries. Some of the books she’s requested to ban include a graphic novel adaptation of “The Diary of Anne Frank” and “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” a memoir about growing up Black and queer.
In 2022, Pippin was also appointed by the Florida Department of Education to a workgroup of parents tasked with developing a training for state educators to comply with the classroom censorship laws signed by Governor Ron DeSantis, who has spoken at a M4L summit. One of these laws is the notorious “Don’t Say Gay” law, which prohibits educators from teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity.
And earlier this summer, she filed a complaint against a Vero Beach wine bar for hosting an all-
ages drag event, which she alleges contained performances with sexual themes. The bar’s owner, who is also a city official, denies the allegations.
This is not M4L’s first brush with controversy. The group’s co-founder, Bridget Ziegler, allegedly assisted her husband in sexually assaulting another woman. An Indiana chapter came under fire for quoting Adolf Hitler in a 2023 newsletter. And the group has hosted speakers who’ve spread medical misinformation on multiple occasions, claiming that doctors are “sterilizing and mutilating [trans] children” and that gender-affirming health care is “snake oil.”
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Pippin’s Response
When presented with these allegations, Pippin did not provide any evidence of a nursing license. In an email, she told Uncloseted Media that she was “surprised to see these allegations being raised again — especially considering they were addressed over a year ago.” She pointed to a prior case involving stalking and said the answers about whether she is a licensed nurse can be found via that case. However, the case and its associated documents are not available online.
Pippin testifying before the Indian River County School Board (screenshot/YouTube).
Pippin has previously stated that the reason her license is not publicly accessible is because she was ordered to “hide [it] from the public for five years” after filing a fraud suit in 2020 against someone who she says had used her license to file for unemployment. In emails with Uncloseted Media, she reaffirmed this story.
While Uncloseted Media was unable to verify the existence of this fraud case, experts say that such a decision from the court would be “unusual.”
“We have fought to make nurses licenses private and have been unable to do so even in at-risk areas,” says Willa Fuller, executive director of the Florida Nurses Association.
Multiple people in Indian River County say that Pippin’s questionable nursing status has been an open secret for years, but the issue didn’t start attracting wider attention until it was covered by The Florida Fruit Loop, a local Facebook page that promises to provide “a daily dose of MAGA butthurt.” Last weekend, Pippin left a note in the page’s comments titled “CEASE AND DESIST LETTER,” where she called multiple statements made by the page defamatory. However, the notice does not mention or dispute any allegations made about her nursing license.
The intro to Pippin’s comment (screenshot received from The Florida Fruit Loop).
The Implications
Falsely presenting as a nurse is a crime in Florida under certain circumstances, with one woman being arrested in the state for this just last month. However, in emails reviewed by Uncloseted Media, a DOH official cautioned that the laws only apply in specific cases.
“For those statutes where an unlicensed person is allegedly holding themselves out as a licensed healthcare provider to apply, the Subject would need to hold themselves out / lead the public to believe they are a current and active licensee,” the official wrote.
While the full results of Pippin’s investigation have not yet been released, the individual who corresponded with the DOH says the department later informed them that their complaint “lacked … a criminal finding.”
The DOH official did note, though, that the video of Pippin’s testimony before the school district could be considered a violation. Pippin has also publicly used the formal title “registered nurse” on multiple occasions, including in a rant against masking posted to the Republican Club of Indian River’s Facebook page in 2020; in a Department of Education report; and in Vero News.
“She has been out here presenting herself as an authority on things in the world of health care and education,” says Cindy Gibbs. “And the groups of people that she associates herself with … just keep generating and regenerating the same stuff: ‘oh, Jennifer knows things because she’s a registered nurse.’”
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Allendale United Methodist Church in St. Petersburg, Florida. | Screenshot: Google Maps
A church in Florida has sent the local sheriff’s office an invoice after law enforcement officials parked their vehicles in its parking lot against the pastor’s wishes as they sought to carry out an unspecified investigation.
Allendale United Methodist Church in St. Petersburg, Florida, posted a photograph to Facebook on June 17 showing an invoice addressed to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. The invoice requests a payment of $10,000 for “unauthorized use of [the] private church parking lot beginning at 6:00 AM.”
The invoice maintained that the presence of “13 vehicles occupying 17 parking spots” resulted in a “disruption to community access, operations, and congregational use of property.”
The document stressed that “continued use without coordination or consent may result in legal action or additional penalties,” vowing that the church will use payment received from the law enforcement agency to pay for “legal services for immigrants.”
Andy Oliver, the pastor of Allendale, who has been outspoken in his advocacy against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, posted a video to Facebook on June 17 documenting the presence of law enforcement vehicles in the church parking lot.
The video shows Oliver asking law enforcement officials if he could help them. One of them responded by telling Oliver, “We’re just waiting for an operation.”
“Is this involving ICE?” Oliver asked. Multiple law enforcement officials denied that the operation in question involved ICE but declined to provide further details other than stating, “It’s a Sheriff’s Office investigation.” After the official informed Oliver that the investigation did not involve anything on his property, the pastor asked the law enforcement officials to leave: “I don’t want policing to be staged here. Definitely, ICE is not welcome here.”
The officers agreed to leave, and a subsequent video posted to Facebook shows a dozen vehicles, both marked and unmarked, exiting the property.
Oliver’s Facebook page makes the dislike of ICE at his church clear. The cover photo features an image of the church taken at night with the words “Abolish ICE” displayed on the side of the building.
The most recent public post on Oliver’s Facebook page links to a TikTok video showing the pastor speaking at an anti-ICE protest outside the Pinellas County Jail while wearing an “Abolish ICE” shirt on June 14, three days before law enforcement officials showed up on his property.
During his remarks, Oliver denounced ICE as a “weapon” that is “soaked in white supremacy.”
“It is the child of manifest destiny and Jim Crow, the bastard cousin of slave patrols and Indian removal,” he added. “ICE is the cold breath of empire whispering ‘You don’t belong.'”
Oliver referred to the Bible as he attempted to make the case against ICE.
“Jesus fled to Egypt as a refugee. Jesus knew what it meant to hear soldiers marching with orders signed in the blood of empire and Jesus, he was executed by the state, hung between thieves as a warning to the masses. His death was legal.”
“So, don’t you dare tell me that the Gospel is neutral. Don’t you dare sanitize the cross while ICE cages children under fluorescent lights. I believe in resurrection, but too many are still hanging on crosses of barbed wire borders, prison buses, ankle monitors and courtroom numbers that decide who gets to stay and who gets disappeared. ICE disappears people. And if your theology doesn’t scream for abolition, then your theology is frozen,” he proclaimed.
Oliver shared his belief that “this nation has built its wealth on stolen land and stolen labor, and ICE is just the newest name for the oldest sin.” He described ICE as “white supremacy in a windbreaker, colonialism with a clipboard” and “hatred with a hollowed-out smile.”
“Our God does not deport, our God delivers,” he said. “Our God does not separate families, our God sets captives free.”
“ICE is sin, borders are a lie, cages are the devil’s architecture and silence is complicity. We won’t be silent. We won’t be complicit. We won’t stop until every child is reunited, every detainee is released and every system built on hate melts into history,” he vowed.
Oliver’s advocacy against ICE is not the only example of the pastor’s progressive activism.
In 2023, after the Florida Department of Education rejected an Advanced Placement African-American Studies course over concerns it promoted critical theory, Oliver offered the class at his church.
Since returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump and his administration have ramped up enforcement of immigration law, which has seen waves of ICE raids seeking to detain immigrants who are in the U.S illegally.
While some have defended the measure as a bid to enforce the country’s immigration laws, as millions of immigrants are in the country illegally, some Christian leaders have voiced their displeasure with church properties being used in immigration raids.
In a January directive, the Trump administration rescinded the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s policy limiting the deportation of illegal immigrants in so-called “sensitive areas.”
The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino in San Bernardino, California, issued a statement this week criticizing the “change and increase in immigration enforcement in our region and specifically our diocese.”
“We have experienced at least one case of [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents entering a parish property and seizing several people,” Bishop Alberto Rojas wrote.
“While we surely respect and appreciate the right of law enforcement to keep our communities safe from violent criminals, we are now seeing agents detain people as they leave their homes, in their places of work and other randomly chosen public settings.”
The Allendale United Methodist Church of St. Petersburg just ran a full page ad in the Tampa Bay Times in which it apologized to the LGBTQIA community for the harm that was done to it by the UMC. The add is a wonderful expression of love for all. Please find it and read it.
LGBTQ+ affirming Allendale United Methodist Church, located in St. Petersburg, FL, hosts drag queen-led worship services. In one service, drag queens perform and lip-sync to Dolly Parton’s version of “Go Tell It on the Mountain.” Allendale’s most recent Instagram post reads,… pic.twitter.com/h9omwmnhSE
Rev. Andy Oliver (he/him/his), pastor of Allendale United Methodist Church in St Petersburg, Florida, lights a candle wrapped in barbed wire in honor of alleged wife beater Kilmar Abrego Garcia—during his EASTER church service.
Ah no love like Christian love! Every time these loving Christian gang thugs break the laws to stop legal expression they don’t agree with because they demand everyone follow their church doctrine. The complete arrogance of these gang thugs who believe their religious views give them the right to disregard any laws they want while threatening families and terrorizing little kids. Sure a good way to make Christian recruits and spread the love of god screaming at little kids who want a story from a person in a costume. This is not protecting children nor evangelizing, their is terrorism and out of control hate. If anyone has an update to theis story please share it with us. Best wishes or Hugs
The event, which was taking place as part of Auckland’s annual Pride festival, was cancelled after 50 protestors pushed their way through the library and refused to leave.
Around 30 toddlers, young children and adults were forced to barricade themselves inside the library as the protestors continued, according to local outlets.
During the commotion, a 16-year-old girl attending a sports event alleges she was assaulted by Destiny Church members, suffering a concussion.
Police are investigating allegations of assault after anti-drag protestors stormed a family-friend drag event in Auckland, New Zealand.
Protestors linked to Christian fundamentalist group Destiny Church stormed the Te Atatū in Auckland on Saturday (15 February), where a storytime event for children hosted by a drag king was taking place.
The event, which was taking place as part of Auckland’s annual Pride festival, was cancelled after 50 protestors pushed their way through the library and refused to leave.
Around 30 toddlers, young children and adults were forced to barricade themselves inside the library as the protestors continued, according to local outlets.
During the commotion, a 16-year-old girl attending a sports event alleges she was assaulted by Destiny Church members, suffering a concussion.
Destiny Church members storming the library in Auckland. (YouTube)
Auckland Police said it is investigating allegations of assault over the protest, which it said “crossed a line.”
“The group’s actions caused considerable distress and concern among tamariki [children], library staff and visitors,” Inspector Simon Walker, acting Waitematā district commander, said. “nobody, especially children, should ever be made to feel unsafe.”
Walker encouraged anyone subjected to violent behaviour during the protest to make a report at their nearest Police station, or contact officials online at 105.police.govt.nz.
“Police and Auckland Council have worked closely around the pride celebrations, and this work will continue. We live in a diverse city in a diverse country, and that is worth celebrating.”
No arrests have been made at the time of reporting, though Walker added that enquiries are “in the early stages.”
I am reposting this because brucedesertrat had a great comment and when I went to the link the site demanded I stop my ad blockers and sigh in. I refused to do both. So a few minutes ago I posted a fresh article on the NIH funding and in this original post I added three links to the Kennedy Center and Felon president tRump. Hugs
Has Oklahoma already become a theocracy? Is the will of the people not important, or only the doctrines of the fundamentalist Christ the majority of these people belong to so their god will be happy is important. The voters don’t matter, the wants and needs of those who elect the lawmakers don’t matter, only pleasing their one version of a god out of 1100 other versions of god. To hell with the rights of the people, to hell with the instruction of the woke hippy Jesus, just push the hates and desires of white males cis straight males to dominate and run everything. As Roger says if they win how long will they start warring with each other for the top positions of speaking for their god? Hugs
Sen. Dusty Deevers, R-Elgin, announced on Tuesday a bold slate of eight legislative measures aimed at restoring moral sanity in Oklahoma. Together, these bills set a course for pushing back against the moral decay foisted upon Oklahoma by the far-left’s march through our institutions to destroy the moral foundations upon which the United States and Christian Civilization had long rested.
“Sadly, the left’s century-long assault on morality and decency has been so successful that some have come to accept as normal a society that is drowning in hardcore pornography, prenatal homicide, and sexual performances for children. None of this is normal. Each one of these evils is a result of a policy choice to not stand for what we know is right. Opposing these evils does not mean we are extremists. It means we are sane,” Deevers said.
“Contrary to what the left would have us believe, it doesn’t have to be this way. We can and should imagine and move toward a society that celebrates virtue in the public square rather than vice. We can restore normalcy, decency, and morality; we can protect the most vulnerable, restore a high view of marriage, and shield children from explicit material that can warp their innocent minds. We simply must have the courage to stand against the most radical and degenerate elements of the far-left.”
SB456 seeks to protect the lives of all preborn children in Oklahoma by closing the self-managed abortion loophole. While clinics may be prohibited from performing abortions, pro-life laws currently being enforced allow mothers to order abortion pills online and administer them herself. Recent research from the Foundation to Abolish Abortion shows that an estimated 3,274 self-managed abortions are taking place annually in Oklahoma.
SB593 – Prohibiting Pornography in Oklahoma
The bill prohibits pornography in general, providing for criminal penalties of up to 10 years in prison for production, distribution, or possession. It also provides heightened 10-to-30-year criminal penalties for organized pornography trafficking. “Pornography is both degenerate material and a highly addictive drug,” Deevers said. “It ruins marriages, ruins lives, destroys innocence, warps young people’s perception of the opposite sex, turns women into objects, turns men into objects, degrades human dignity, and corrodes the moral fabric of society. Any decent society will stand against this plague with the full weight of the law.”
SB550 – Prohibiting Drag Performances for Children
SB550 would ensure that Oklahoma kids are not subjected to adult cabaret performances including Drag Queen Story Hour. Under the provisions of the bill, the performer would be subject to a prison sentence of one-to-five years, while the organizer of the event would face up to one year behind bars.
SB228 – The Covenant Marriage Act
The Covenant Marriage Act would allow for couples in Oklahoma to opt into a covenant marriage, based on the traditional understanding of marriage as a binding legal contract with meaningful vows to one another. Covenant marriages would only be able to be dissolved in cases of abuse, adultery, or abandonment. Couples who opt into a covenant marriage would be eligible for a $2,500 tax credit.
SB829 – Prohibiting No-Fault Divorce
This bill would end no-fault divorce in Oklahoma by removing “incompatibility” as a justification for divorce, leaving abandonment, gross neglect, extreme cruelty, habitual drunkenness, insanity for a period of five years, adultery, unknown pregnancy, and fraudulent contract as the available justifications. It also establishes that the at-fault parent must pay restitution to the victims of divorce–that is, the children–in the form of a trust fund that they get access to when they turn 18.
Deever’s appeared here in January 2024 when he first tried to make viewing porn and sexting a consenting person a felony.
In March 2024, he declared during a Oklahoma House floor speech that all federal regulations are “against God’s law.”
In September 2024, he declared that people who vote for Kamala Harris are “possessed by demons.”
As you’ve probably already guessed, Deever’s is a pastor.
A small conservative group in Lancaster, Ohio targeted local businesses and institutions that were LGBTQ+ friendly in response to an annual family-friendly pride event that held an outdoor drag show. When the group failed to get the city to penalize drag performers—and ban drag altogether—they then circulated a boycott list. Local business owners, however, were not harmed by the boycott. In fact, they saw a major influx in traffic after people drove from out of town to support the businesses after seeing them on the anti-LGBTQ+ boycott list.
Again this crusade is marketed as protecting the children from sexualized content. What do they call sexualized content? Chest binders for teenage girls and drag queens! Neither are sexualizing for children. Drag queens can run the gambit from guys dressed as grandmothers to guys dressed as sexy sex workers. It depends on the venue, and minors are not allowed in adult entertainment events. That is already the laws. But to the fundamentalist any guy dressed in anything thought of as women’s attire is sexualizing and a threat to children. Why? Kids don’t care if a man wears pants or a dress. And chest binders are not sexualizing nor confusing. They are a medical assistance tool. If a girl identifies as a boy and hates her body, he needs to hide or remove the sign or his boob development. Would these people be so outraged at binders if it was a boy with gynecomastia, which is when boys grow breasts, uses a bind to feel better about themselves? No it is because the person transitioning is trans that outrages them. We are losing the discussion on this topic because we are let the vocal outraged right set the narrative such as all drag is sexual and confusing kids, and anything trans is forced on kids sexualizing them so it also confuses them. Remember when they said gays recruit boys by molesting them so they would turn gay? That was easily shown to be ridiculous. We went on the offense then and won. We need to go back on the offense and show the haters are repressively backwards in their thinking who don’t understand the changing evolving society. Hugs
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is rolling back its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, joining a growing list of major corporations that have done the same after coming under attack by conservative activists.
The changes, confirmed by Walmart on Monday, are sweeping and include everything from not renewing a five-year commitment for an equity racial center set up in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd, to pulling out of a prominent gay rights index. And when it comes to race or gender, Walmart won’t be giving priority treatment to suppliers.
Walmart’s moves underscore the increasing pressure faced by corporate America as it continues to navigate the fallout from the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June 2023 ending affirmative action in college admissions. Emboldened by that decision, conservative groups have filed lawsuits making similar arguments about corporations, targeting workplace initiatives such as diversity programs and hiring practices that prioritize historically marginalized groups.
Separately, conservative political commentator and activist Robby Starbuck has been going after corporate DEI policies, calling out individual companies on the social media platform X. Several of those companies have subsequently announced that they are pulling back their initiatives, including Ford, Harley-Davidson, Lowe’s and Tractor Supply.
But Walmart, which employs 1.6 million workers in the U.S., is the largest one to do so.
“This is the biggest win yet for our movement to end wokeness in corporate America,” Starbuck wrote on X, adding that he had been in conversation with Walmart.
Walmart confirmed to The Associated Press that it will better monitor its third-party marketplace items to make sure they don’t feature sexual and transgender products aimed at minors. That would include chest binders intended for youth who are going through a gender change, the company said.
The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer will also be reviewing grants to Pride events to make sure it is not financially supporting sexualized content that may be unsuitable for kids. For example, the company wants to makes sure a family pavilion is not next to a drag show at a Pride event, the company said.
Additionally, Walmart will no longer consider race and gender as a litmus test to improve diversity when it offers supplier contracts. The company said it didn’t have quotas and will not do so going forward. It won’t be gathering demographic data when determining financing eligibility for those grants.
Walmart also said it wouldn’t renew a racial equity center that was established through a five-year, $100 million philanthropic commitment from the company with a mandate to, according to its website, “address the root causes of gaps in outcomes experienced by Black and African American people in education, health, finance and criminal justice systems.”
And it would stop participating in the Human Rights Campaign’s annual benchmark index that measures workplace inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees.
“We’ve been on a journey and know we aren’t perfect, but every decision comes from a place of wanting to foster a sense of belonging, to open doors to opportunities for all our associates, customers and suppliers and to be a Walmart for everyone,” the company said in a statement.
The changes come soon after an election win by former President Donald Trump, who has criticized DEI initiatives and surrounded himself with conservatives who hold similar views, including his former adviser Stephen Miller, who leads a group called America First Legal that has challenged corporate DEI policies. Trump named Miller to be the deputy chief of policy in his new administration.
A Walmart spokesperson said some of its policy changes have been in progress for a while. For example, it has been moving away from using the word DEI in job titles and communications and started to use the word “belonging.” It also started making changes to its supplier program in the aftermath of the Supreme Court affirmative action ruling.
Some have been urging companies to stick with their DEI policies. Last month, a group of Democrats in Congress appealed to the leaders of the Fortune 1000, saying that DEI efforts give everyone a fair chance at achieving the American dream.
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