Gay rights under siege – thanks to Trump

Walmart becomes latest US brand to scrap DEI policies after right-wing pressure.

Retail chain Walmart has scrapped its equality policies after pressure from right-wing pundits, who threatened to boycott the brand before the Black Friday sales (29 November).

Robby Starbuck, a former music video director who is leading the charge against diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) policies in the US, took to social media to celebrate Walmart abandoning its commitments, telling his followers that the stores were dropping “woke policies”.

Starbuck claimed he told executives at Walmart, which has 1.6 million employees and nearly 5,000 locations in the US, that he was “doing a story on wokeness there” and had “productive conversations to find solutions”.

The business will now no longer take part in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index – it earned a perfect score of 100 in 2023 – stop selling “inappropriate sexual and/or transgender products” marketed at children, review Pride funding and no longer provide staff with racial-equity training.

Walmart will also stop using the term Latinx, discontinue the use of DEI as a term and “will evaluate supplier diversity programmes and ensure they do not provide preferential treatment and benefits to suppliers based on diversity”.

Starbuck said the changes would “send shockwaves throughout corporate America” and described the move as “the biggest win yet for our movement to end wokeness in corporate America”, which has become something of a catchphrase for him.

Source: https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/11/26/walmart-dei-policies-scrap-robby-starbuck/?user_id=gaypages@iafrica.com

Massmart Holdings Limited (Walmart-owned) is a South African firm that owns local brands such as Game, Makro, Builder’s Warehouse and CBW. It is the second-largest distributor of consumer goods in Africa, the largest retailer of general merchandise, liquor and home improvement equipment and wholesaler of basic foods.

Companies that rolled back DEI policies