By Blake Wolf, OAN Staff
Wednesday, August 28, 2024 11:24 AM
The Home Depot brand previously partnered with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation, an LGBTQ program aimed at elementary school students, before quietly ending the initiative to avoid press and consumer backlash.
advertisement
The goal is to “create LGBTQ+ and gender-inclusive schools, prevent bias-based bullying, and support transgender and non-binary students.”
Additionally, the partnership with the HRC Foundation has expanded to include the “Welcoming Schools” program, which provides students with information about “pansexual” and “non-binary” identities.
“We are committed to strengthening our efforts to make a meaningful and sustainable difference in helping transform our communities,” said Kelly Charles, senior director of diversity, equity and inclusion at Home Depot. “Our values guide everything we do, and our support of Welcoming Schools and HBCU programs is just the beginning of our expanding partnership with the HRC Foundation.”
However, as of October 2022, Charles no longer works for Home Depot, according to her LinkedIn.
The “Welcoming Schools Program” partnership was announced in 2022. Home Depot claimed to have offered “educational” programs for students to learn transgender and LGBTQ terminology, as well as K-12 lesson plans to seamlessly introduce the ideas into the classroom.
“Home Depot has long partnered with the HRC Foundation to drive meaningful change, but we have expanded our partnership to support multiple initiatives that align with our important work to advance education for all, especially within diverse communities,” the announcement added.
The Welcoming Schools website goes into more detail about what they do.
“HRC Foundation's Welcoming Schools is the nation's most comprehensive bias-based bullying prevention program, providing LGBTQ+ and gender-inclusive professional development training, lesson plans, reading lists, and resources designed specifically for educators and youth services professionals. The program uses an intersectional, anti-racist lens dedicated to actionable policies and practices. The program uplifts school communities with critical tools to embrace family diversity, create LGBTQ+ and gender-inclusive schools, prevent bias-based bullying, and support transgender and non-binary students.”
One lesson plan explores gender identity through a “gender snow person,” specifically aimed at students in grades 3 through 8.
“Help students understand that gender is an inner feeling of being a girl, boy, both, or neither. There are many ways people identify with their gender, and there are many genders,” the lesson plan states. “To explain this simply to students: when a baby is born, a doctor or midwife looks at the baby's body and anatomy and says it's a girl, boy, or intersex. But babies can't talk yet, so they can't communicate how they feel. When babies start talking, they may say they're a girl, a boy, both, or neither.”
The Welcoming Schools website also features a “Gender Support Checklist” to ask questions about parents' support for gender identity at home if their child does not conform to their gender identity.
“Be sure to ask students about their family relationships,” the checklist read. “Some students may not use pronouns at all, and some may use multiple pronouns.”
But as a Home Depot spokesperson put it, the “woke” ideological indoctrination campaign didn't last. Fox News Digital The partnership ended in 2023. Moreover, none of Home Depot's spokespeople have specifically acknowledged the reason for the partnership's termination.
“Because Home Depot discontinued its partnership with HRC last year, we are not the appropriate contact to comment on HRC's programs. Questions about HRC should be directed to HRC directly. In the past, we have funded two conferences to train educators on how to prevent bullying using the Human Rights Campaign's Welcoming Schools program.”
Stay up to date! Receive the latest news directly in your email for free. Sign up here: https://www.oann.com/alerts
Advertisement below
Please share this post!
