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Commentary

State Farm, Where Radicalism Is Ensured

May 24, 2022

Americans are finding out what State Farm apparently puts a premium on: indoctrination. Thanks to a company whistleblower, the corporation was just outed for trying to flood local libraries and schools with transgender stories for children. “The project’s goal,” the January email read, “is to increase representation of LGBTQ books and support our communities in having challenging, important, and empowering conversations with children Age 5+.” Turns out, parents don’t like the idea of an insurance company laying claim on their kids. And the outrage pouring into headquarters proves it.

When the news exploded on social media, parents everywhere were appalled. What was the insurance giant, who has no five-year-old policyholders, thinking? Why is it peddling such a dangerous and extraneous ideology to kids? Kindergarteners don’t drive. They aren’t homeowners. What business is it of State Farm’s to try to shape their sexual identity?

And yet, emails show, as many as 550 State Farm employees were asked to join the project with GenderCool, an extremist group whose entire purpose is recruiting children for the transgender movement. The idea, State Farm explained, is to flood local communities with “a collection of books to help bring clarity and understanding to the national conversation about being transgender, inclusive, and nonbinary.”

When Consumers’ Research first saw the memo to employees, executive director Will Hild couldn’t believe it. “We were appalled when the whistleblower produced the materials,” he said on “Washington Watch.” “We’re thankful that they came to us, but of course, we were shocked.” Hild said the organization spent a “good amount of time” verifying that the documents were even real. They reached out to State Farm agents to see if others had gotten the email. A lot of them insisted their company would never send anything like that. “And then they went back and searched their inbox — and sure enough, they themselves were appalled and shocked. ... What would lead a company to think it was appropriate to approach kindergartens with conversations around sexual identity?” he wondered aloud. “There [are] almost no words for how disgusting that is.”

Outraged, Hild’s group set to work on a national ad, “Like a creepy neighbor, State Farm is there,” warning families that the company is using their dollars to target children. These books, Hild explains, “They’re written [in the first person] as someone who identifies as transgender — who themselves is underage. ... And it describes the process of realizing that they were ‘assigned the wrong gender at birth by doctors.’” They encourage kids — kindergarten, especially — to question if they’re a boy or girl. “If you are a State Farm customer,” he warned, “this is being done in your name.”

Not surprisingly, that infuriated Americans who, in a matter of hours, started to pick up the phone and inundate the company with complaints. State Farm, who was obviously not prepared for a PR crisis, sent out chief diversity officer Victor Terry to try and clean up the self-made mess before they had a Disney-level disaster on their hands. In a surprisingly weak and ambivalent statement, the company stood by its call for “inclusivity,” but announced it would no longer support the program. “Conversations about gender and identity should happen at home with parents. We don’t support required curriculum in schools on this topic. We support organizations providing resources for parents to have these conversations.”

Had Terry stopped there, the controversy might have died down. Instead, State Farm went on to say that it wasn’t backing away from its woke agenda and vowed to find other outlets for its LGBT extremism. “We will continue to explore how we can support organizations that provide tools and resources that align with our commitment to diversity...”

Obviously, the company wants to have it both ways. They want to save face and their bottom line, while still pandering to the radical LGBT lobby. There’s just one problem: it won’t work. For starters, the Left is never satisfied (and it certainly won’t be by this half-hearted gesture). Secondly, Americans are in no mood to give woke corporate America a break. If State Farm doesn’t release a comprehensive apology, disavowing this project, then it’s time for Christians to take action. As a State Farm customer, even though my agent is a family friend, I’ll be finding new insurance if State Farm does not unequivocally back away from the activist groups grooming children.

Imagine the uproar if State Farm had been caught giving Bibles to local schools. The government banned God from the classroom, we were told, because kids were “too impressionable.” Now, we can’t have conversations about faith because children are too young — but we can talk to them about sexual perversion? It’s absurd. We’ve got to draw a bright, bold line and say, “Enough is enough.” Sign FRC Action’s petition here to tell State Farm Insurance Company that being a good neighbor means protecting children, not subjecting them to dangerous ideologies.

In the insurance world, liability is everything. It’s time for State Farm to own up to the damage it’s doing or face the consequences.

Tony Perkins is president of Family Research Council and executive editor of The Washington Stand.