Lowe's becomes latest company to dial back LGBTQ DEI

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Home goods retailer Lowe's is paring back its efforts to promote LGBTQ inclusion — the latest large company to respond to a growing cultural backlash led by conservatives targeting queer representation in public life.

In an internal company memo being widely shared among media organizations, Lowe's told employees it was ending its participation in surveys for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the country’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, and would also combine company resource groups designed to support minority employees into one umbrella organization.

The company said it would also end sponsorship and participation in community events such as parades, festivals, or fairs — a reference to pride parades. As recently as 2019, Lowe's was a sponsor of Charlotte, North Carolina's pride parade.

Though some media reports suggested Lowe's was reversing its diversity efforts writ large, the changes appear to specifically target LGBTQ representation. Lowe's has previously earned plaudits as a diversity champion — and earned a perfect score in HRC's most recent corporate equity index that examines its policies protecting LGBTQ workers.

Since 2018, Lowe's has been led by an African American CEO, Marvin Ellison; in June, Ellison was named Ethical Leader of the Year by the Society for Human Resource Management, the nation's largest HR organization.

As of Tuesday morning, Lowe's continued to operate a webpage dedicated to its diversity efforts.

When corporation base their hiring policies solely on people's ability to do the work -- not on race, gender, age, religion, physical attractiveness, sexual orientation, et cetera -- there is no need for DEI-based policies.

I always wanted to work for employers who would hire, pay, and promote me for what I do, not for what I am.

. . . US companies understand companies that have staff of diverse backgrounds are bring more diverse ideas and skills etc... not saying merit based employment is not desirable (it still is) but other factors are considered too.

I have attended industry seminars that had diverse audiences, yet the people running the seminars were the same plain-vanilla types you see running businesses every day.