The Human Rights Campaign describes itself as “the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization.” One of the group’s flagship initiatives is its Corporate Equality Index, which the group describes as providing “a national benchmark for corporate policies, practices and benefits.”
According to HRC’s most recent report, “765 employers achieved a top score of 100” on the index, including “108 Fortune 500-ranked businesses.” In addition to scoring 100 on the CEI, some of the most recognizable corporations in the U.S. separately partner with the HRC to provide “generous support of the work of the Human Rights Campaign.”
Pushing transgenderism via allegiance to HRC might actually constitute a breach of duty by corporate managers, as I have noted elsewhere. But let’s unpack some of what is required to score 100 on the index and how that arguably places corporations in direct conflict with President Trump’s executive order “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”
This is an important exercise from a corporate governance perspective because the executive order expressly includes federal contractors. Let’s start by reviewing some key quotes from the order.
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First, we are told that it is “the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female,” and that these sexes “are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.” Second, we are told that “sex” shall “refer to an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female” and that it is not “a synonym for and does not include the concept of ’gender identity.’”
Third, we are told that “gender identity” reflects “a fully internal and subjective sense of self, disconnected from biological reality and sex and existing on an infinite continuum, that does not provide a meaningful basis for identification and cannot be recognized as a replacement for sex.” These last two points are likely extremely important in light of attempts to extend laws protecting against discrimination on the basis of sex to, for example, cases involving the belief that a child has been born in the wrong body or that a man can become a woman by saying magic words.
Fourth, the executive order calls for policy implementation by, among other things, ensuring that “intimate spaces … are designated by sex and not identity.” Fifth, agencies are directed to remove all and stop issuing all messages that “promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology.”
Now let’s take a look at some of the things the CEI requires corporations to do to score a 100, as set forth in the organization’s scoring criteria.
First, a corporation’s nondiscrimination policy must include the terms “sexual orientation” and “gender identity or expression” (or “gender identity”) for all operations. Second, businesses must have “gender transition guidelines with supportive restroom, dress code, documentation guidance and practical guidance on navigating an employee’s transition.”
Third, businesses “must demonstrate LGBTQ+ engagement that extends across the firm by implementing … outreach or engagement initiatives.” Fourth, if a business pulls back from promoting gender ideology, transgenderism or gender transitioning, it risks a 25-point deduction under the CEI’s “responsible citizenship” criteria.
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It should be obvious that, at the very least, a material tension exists between Mr. Trump’s executive order and the CEI’s scoring criteria. Of course, private companies have a great deal of freedom in terms of deciding the extent to which they want to align with either side in this debate. But what they arguably aren’t free to do, at least to the extent they have public shareholders who are owed fiduciary duties, is to ignore this tension and, for example, go all in on transgenderism because everyone who matters at the World Economic Forum is telling them it’s “obviously” the path on the right side of history.
While there has recently been a significant vibe shift when it comes to corporations promoting transgenderism, with “a dramatic 65% drop in Fortune 500 CEI participation,” it is also apparently true that the “2026 CEI survey found that 1,135 major employers reported implementing gender transition guidelines in the workplace, marking an increase from 660 total in 2022.”
I wrote last year that it “can reasonably be argued that HRC pushes gender dysphoria and transgenderism on children, including ’chemical castration’ and ’experimental sex change surgeries’ for minors (sometimes behind the backs of their parents).” If it turns out that gender transitioning is a toxic tort time bomb, that’s a lot of corporate decision-makers with a lot of explaining to do for their support of HRC.
