More and more companies are abandoning their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies

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Roger-Luc Chayer (Image: Generated by AI – Gay Globe)

In recent months, an increasing number of companies around the world, particularly in the United States, Europe, and Canada, have been abandoning their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, often under more or less justified pretenses. However, since the 1980s, thanks to the efforts of LGBTQ+ communities and their representatives, significant progress had been made. These DEI policies were then adopted by most major international companies, as well as by several governments and public authorities.

Definition of DEI

A precise definition is provided by Deloitte Insights, which emphasizes that DEI policies are essential to improving organizational performance, fostering innovation, and strengthening employee engagement.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies are strategies and initiatives adopted by companies and organizations to promote a respectful, inclusive, and equitable work environment. They aim to:

  • Diversity: Represent and integrate people from different backgrounds (ethnic origins, genders, sexual orientations, abilities, ages, etc.).
  • Equity: Ensure fair treatment by identifying and eliminating systemic barriers, offering everyone equal chances of success.
  • Inclusion: Create an environment where each individual feels accepted, valued, and encouraged to contribute fully.

Why are companies abandoning their DEI policies?

The case of Walmart is the most recent. According to journalist Anne D’Innocenzio from the Associated Press, the changes, confirmed by Walmart on Monday, are radical, ranging from the non-renewal of a five-year commitment to an equity center created in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd, to withdrawing from an important LGBTQ+ rights index. Additionally, Walmart will no longer prioritize ethnic or gender considerations for its suppliers.

The actions taken by Walmart highlight the increasing pressure faced by American companies as they continue to deal with the fallout from the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision ending affirmative action in college admissions. Encouraged by this ruling, conservative groups have filed lawsuits using similar arguments against businesses, targeting workplace initiatives such as diversity programs and hiring practices that prioritize historically marginalized groups.

Molson had recently announced the same. In a statement on September 6, published in Montreal, Molson stated: « Molson Coors Brewery announces it is abandoning its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies to adopt a ‘broader vision’ in which all employees know they are welcome. »

Furthermore, the Canadian-American multinational specified that it will no longer participate in the ranking program by the Human Rights Campaign, an advocacy group that evaluates companies on the inclusivity of their practices toward the LGBTQ+ community.

Sometimes radical demands from the LGBTQ+ community

In the 1970s to 1990s, gay and lesbian communities legitimately advocated for equality before the law and the state, the right to marry and adopt, spousal benefits, and treatment for HIV, which devastated what was then called the gay and lesbian community. However, over the years, these demands evolved to reach a level of inclusivity that many criticize, feeling it no longer accurately reflects the realities of sexual minorities. « Gay and lesbian, » « gay, bisexual, and lesbian, » and today in 2024, « LGBTTQ2QIAAPMS+ » for « gender identity, asexual, bisexual, pansexual, polyamory, grissexual, romantic orientation, cisgender, transgender, non-binary, androgyne, queer, two-spirit, intersex, fluid gender, agender, allosexual, demisexual, morinom, misgendering, allophobia, allies. »

And what about this group of pedophiles, led by a Quebecer accused and convicted of pedophilia, who claims the inclusion of pedophiles in LGBTQ+ communities and their recognition as a legitimate sexual orientation so they are no longer criminalized for what they consider to be an orientation and not a deviation?

A loss of clarity

We must admit it, we no longer recognize ourselves, and few identify with this acronym, which has become a hodgepodge of sexual orientations, diverse genders, and even medical conditions. A true catch-all that has lost all clear meaning, the result of a desire to group everything that is not heterosexual and Christian into an incoherent whole.

As gays and lesbians, we must share the responsibility for this confusion with those who are not part of our communities but who, over the years, have sought to give the impression of including everything and anything. In reality, this has often led to the sly exclusion of what was truly different. And meanwhile, LGBTQ+ people celebrate this inclusivity that, too often, remains only a facade on paper…

The abandonment of DEI policies: a logical consequence?

The abandonment of DEI policies by some companies seems to be the logical consequence of exaggeration or caricature, which has also sparked heated debates within the gay and lesbian communities. They are questioning their real place in this vast and complex entity.

Are we witnessing a return of the pendulum?

For years, as a privileged observer of the evolution of sexual orientation issues worldwide and as a journalist, I have always feared that some of our collective actions would provoke a return of the pendulum. I feared that extreme right-wing, religious, and fascist groups would take advantage of our emancipation to try to end it, believing that the place we occupied in our societies came at their expense.

And this is what is happening now with the abandonment of DEI policies worldwide. In 2023 alone, in the United States, more than 120 bills restricting the rights of LGBTQ+ communities were introduced and voted on. Transgender people are the main targets of these laws.

According to NBC News, U.S. state legislators proposed a record 238 bills in 2022 aimed at limiting the rights of LGBTQ Americans, more than three per day, with about half of them targeting transgender people specifically.

And what about the rest of the world?

And all of this is just the beginning. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to dismantle most of the federal laws protecting LGBTQ+ communities in the U.S., and around the world, thousands of laws and protective measures are collapsing, primarily due to the feared return of the pendulum, driven by extremist right-wing groups.

Only time will tell whether we are entering a darker period of our community’s existence, or whether a new world order is emerging on a topic that is, after all, so simple: the gay and lesbian community.

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