As Toyota’s Gender Ideology, DEI Policies Come to Light, Experts Encourage Consumer Activism
Toyota has largely been known as one of America’s most trusted brands. However, for people who trusted the car manufacturer to sell cars and avoid controversial ideologies, they may find themselves disappointed.
According to Robby Starbuck, the conservative activist who has made himself known for exposing radical leftist corporate agendas, Toyota is deep down the well of LGBT activism. In a post on X last week, Starbuck listed some of the ways Toyota has “gone totally woke,” including the following: Sponsoring “a drag queen program at a summer camp for kids identifying as LGBTQ+,” opposing “laws that ban sex changes for kids and funds groups who work to make sex changes legal for children,” supporting the Equality Act that allows men into private women’s spaces, funding “all age” Pride events, hosting DEI trainings, and more.
Additionally, Starbuck explained how Toyota has done extensive work with the far-left Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Some of this collaboration includes Toyota funding HRC’s “Time To Thrive Summit where they worked with the largest teachers union to push gender ideology into elementary schools.” They’ve also donated to the Trevor Project, which “features chat rooms where adults have been caught talking to kids about sexual kinks, how to transition, masturbation and more.” For 16 years, Toyota has also scored 100/100 on HRC’s Corporate Equality Index, which measures how closely a company follows and supports LGBT issues.
“To put it mildly,” Starbuck included in his post, “Toyota seems to have forgotten who their core customers are. They depend on American families and Japanese families to buy their cars. It’s time to remind them who their customers are.” He went on to explain how his “goal with reporting is never destruction, it’s restoration of sanity.” This is done “by informing consumers about the policies companies are adopting so they can make choices about what they’re willing to support as a consumer. That’s not cancel culture, it’s capitalism,” he insisted.
While Toyota remains silent on the matter, Starbuck’s efforts in putting a spotlight on the DEI policies different organizations have in place has led many of them to change course. In late August, Starbuck announced that Lowe’s would cut back on several of their DEI initiatives, alongside Harley-Davidson, Tractor Supply Co., and others. And as David Closson, director of Family Research Council’s Center for Biblical Worldview, pointed out in a comment to The Washington Stand, “For years, the momentum regarding American companies and big business has been towards backing DEI programs and LGBT initiatives.” This, however, makes it that much more prominent when companies decide to backtrack on that momentum.
Closson continued, “In the last few years, we’ve seen big businesses stepping back from DEI programs and the woke agenda.” Only “a few weeks ago, The Wall Street Journal had a front-page headline that said the Ford Motor Company was scaling back its diversity initiatives, specifically with the Human Rights Campaign.” And alongside the “other businesses and organizations that have started to slowly scale back” is the obvious pressure that has come from “social media activists such as Robby Starbuck.”
“We need to step back and look at what’s happening,” Closson urged. Ultimately, “The momentum has only flown in one direction, which is more LGBT activism and DEI initiatives.” But “in the last couple of years and months, there’s been a groundswell of pushback against these initiatives and ideologies.” Yet, the question remains: “Why now?”
According to Closson, the pushback finally causing companies to loosen their grip on DEI policies “shows that a silent majority of Americans are fed up with this indoctrination.” If someone shops at Lowe’s, he added, “they go to get home supplies.” Additionally, “When they go to Tractor Supply Co., they go to get supplies to help them run their farms more efficiently.” What Americans don’t want are for “these large corporations to lecture them on social policy.”
From a larger scale perspective, Closson explained how “many of these companies realize that their radical embrace of these types of ideologies and policies is hurting the bottom line.” It’s become clear that HRC has led many organizations into what Closson described as a near “hostage situation,” and they have been doing so for years. But due to people “like Robby Starbuck exposing” this reality, “many of these companies are now saying enough is enough.”
And when the companies say enough, Closson encouraged consumers to join. “I would encourage consumers, particularly Christian consumers, to not only vote their values, but to shop their values.” As he explained, “even though there’s debate on how effective boycotts are, clearly, if enough Christians tell these companies that they’re not going to shop where their values are violated, the companies eventually listen.” Closson noted how the way in which people boycotted Target and Bud Light last year due to “their radical embrace of LGBT activism” was a good example of this.
“Those companies lost billions of dollars of market share,” he concluded, “and other companies are starting to take notice of what Bud Light and Target had to learn the hard way.”
Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.