(LifeSiteNews) — A cadre of liberal religious sisters’ organizations have joined together to pressure the Ford Motor Company into reinstating pro-LGBT and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) policies that the car manufacturer abandoned last year.
Last August, Ford announced that it would eliminate some of the most controversial elements from its corporate culture as a preemptive move to stave off activist Robby Starbuck’s investigation into the giant automaker.
In his quest to “expose wokeness” and “restore sanity” in corporate America, Starbuck had already met with success earlier last summer with other notable U.S. corporations including Harley Davidson, John Deere, and Tractor Supply.
Ford became one of several corporations opting to no longer participate in the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) annual “Corporate Equality Index,” which judges and ranks large companies based on their fealty to the ever-evolving will of LGBT activists.
Following the high-profile defections, HRC went so far as to declare a “state of emergency” for so-called “LGBTQ+ people” in the U.S., suggesting that it’s now open season on homosexuals, lesbians, gender-confused individuals, and others who live their lives in allegiance to everything the rainbow flag stands for.
Apparently, among those responding to the contrived “state of emergency” are four organizations representing liberal sisters: The Sisters of Mercy’s Mercy Investment Services, Inc.; Adrian Dominican Sisters, the Daughters of Charity, Inc., and Bon Secours Mercy Health, Inc.
They likely represent “activist investors” – leftist groups that become corporate shareholders in order to exercise outsized influence on large corporations in an attempt to further their agenda of transforming society.
As Ford stockholders, the sisters have officially proposed that a vote be taken at the automaker’s next Annual Meeting of Shareholders to direct the company’s Board of Directors to “prepare and issue a report describing the research and analysis it undertook before making changes to its DEl policies and practices in Summer 2024.”
Their proposal is a clear attempt to strongarm Ford’s board and executives into once again injecting the company with what many criticize as harmful, divisive woke identity ideology.
They warn in their proposal, “If Ford has dismantled DEl policies and practices, this may expose it to legal, financial, and reputational risks that will undermine its long-term growth.”
Chief among their concerns in Ford’s “substantive shift in its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEl) strategy,” is the auto manufacturer steering away from pro-LGBT efforts.
In particular, they fret that the company will no longer seek the favor of the radical Human Rights Campaign by participating in its annual survey “on corporate practices related to [so-called] lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+), employees” and will no longer link compensation to diversity goals.
They also attempt to use fear to influence Ford’s shareholders, citing polls alleging that 20 percent of Gen Z adults identify as “LGBTQ+,” suggesting that the car company risks harming its brand by alienating a significant portion of the rising car-driving, auto-purchasing population.
“With each of the last five generations, the percentage of Americans identifying as LGBTQ+ has doubled, indicating that Gen Alpha will have an even stronger association than Gen Z,” they warn, failing to note increasingly widespread opposition to LGBT ideology, including among young adults.
Ford’s 2025 Virtual Annual Meeting of Shareholders is scheduled for May 8.