Toyota announced reductions in its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives following backlash.
In a memo sent to its 50,000 U.S. employees, the company wrote that it will “narrow our community activities to align with STEM education and workforce readiness.”
Employees were also informed that Toyota will end its participation in LGBTQ culture surveys, festivals, and parades.
The memo follows conservative activist Robby Starbuck exposing the car company’s commitment to groups supporting child gender transitions, including the HRC, the Trevor Project, the Dallas Resource Center, the Los Angeles LGBT Center, and the Workplace Equality Summit.
“To put it mildly, Toyota seems to have forgotten who their core customers are. They depend on American families and Japanese families to buy their cars. It’s time to remind them who their customers are,” Starbuck wrote on X last week.
In a follow-up message, Starbuck declared, “I have to give the executives credit for taking this unifying action. It’s not easy to do but they’re preparing their business for future success by adopting corporate neutrality. The companies who adopt neutrality will win the future because they don’t violate the core beliefs of the consumers they rely on.”
“Our campaigns are so effective that we’re getting some of the biggest corporations on earth to change their policies. The landscape of corporate America is quickly shifting to sanity and neutrality. We are the trend now, not the anomaly.”
Several other companies, such as Ford, John Deere, Tractor Supply, Lowe’s, Harley-Davidson, and Jack Daniel’s have scaled back DEI efforts.
