Americans who don’t want diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives forced upon them are fighting tooth and nail to get organizations to change their policies. Robby Starbuck, a prominent media influencer, has called out companies with overt DEI policies and encouraged grassroots pushback. In many cases, these efforts have proved successful. But in other cases, it took weeks, months, or even years for companies to retreat from their policies. On the other side of the coin, there have been multiple instances in which the LGBT-affirming side only had to make one minor complaint for people’s jobs and reputations to be on the line or ruined.

An example of this includes an Idaho National Guardsman who, in 2023, highlighted his biblically-based views on transgenderism on social media, which included statements disputing that children can be “born in the wrong body,” men can compete in female sports, and so on. As a result, a homosexual-identifying “subordinate senior enlisted man” filed “a formal discrimination military complaint against the officer,” who was then told by his chain of command, “You will resign or we’ll make this ugly.”

Another example of this occurred in August, in which the New York Post reported that “a top Oregon state official has been put on administrative leave after a pink-haired, DEI-obsessed subordinate complained he was making hiring decisions based on qualifications instead of personal identity considerations.” The official in question is Mike Shaw, who had served as the Oregon Department of Forestry’s second-in-command before the department’s former DEI strategy officer Megan Donecker complained about him.

According to OregonLive, Donecker’s grievance was that Shaw, when sorting through potential candidates, was looking “beyond gender and identity in hiring, seeking only candidates most qualified for the job.” Donecker also claimed that six queer-identifying staffers at the forestry didn’t “feel safe or comfortable” at work since “conversation around pronouns” weren’t being had.

Shaw has been on paid leave for over two months, but the forestry has yet to explain why. “This example shows how divisive DEI programs can be,” said Meg Kilgannon, Family Research Council’s senior fellow for Education Studies, in a comment to The Washington Stand. “While we want people to follow the golden rule in all aspects of life,” she explained, “this case shows that dictating inclusion tends to have a negative impact on morale and places jobs in jeopardy.” Nor is this the first instance in which an individual has been punished for not adhering to LGBT-related or DEI demands, FRC’s Director of the Center for Biblical Worldview David Closson pointed out to TWS.

“In recent days,” he said, “there has been conversation on whether wokeism has peaked.” Closson explained how some studies claim that “woke ideology reached its height around 2021 to 2022.” However, he added, while “some of the most overt forms of woke ideology may have gone underground for a season, woke thinking and woke ideologies have by no means been vanquished from the public square.” The case of Mike Shaw, he insisted, is a clear illustration of that.

“This latest story would be almost laughable if it weren’t so depressing,” Closson continued. “The relevancy of gender ideology when it comes to forestry is unintelligible.” As Kilgannon emphasized, “In forestry service, physical safety of workers in such a dangerous and specialized field should be a top priority,” which means “hiring qualified team members could be the difference between life and death.” Even so, Closson argued, this is an example of how “the woke mind virus continues to affect all areas of our culture.”

He went on to acknowledge that while “it can be discouraging to see examples like Shaw, there are plenty of other stories that provide evidence that taking a stand for biblical values can and often do make a difference.” In fact, “just in the last few years we’ve seen the backlash against two large corporations, Target and Bud Light, who have now toned down their LGBT initiatives because of a consumer lead boycott that was largely prompted by conservative Christians.”

Moving forward, Closson concluded, “Christians should expect continued hostility, regardless of whether wokeness has reached its peak. After all, Jesus promised in John 15 and 16 that His followers would encounter hostility for their convictions. In the same way that Jesus was persecuted, His followers can expect an unwelcome environment in many settings.”