Arkansas A.G. Joins Letter Urging Costco to Stop Promoting DEI

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On Monday nineteen state attorneys general — including Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin — sent a letter to Costco’s CEO urging the company to eliminate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies. The letter says Costco’s DEI initiatives are discriminatory and violate federal and state laws.

Many companies established DEI policies to create an equal playing field for racial and ethnic minorities, but LGBT groups have hijacked those policies to promote gender-identity politics in the workplace. Employees who hold a biblical view of gender or marriage risk losing their jobs.

Backlash and boycotts over DEI and pro-LGBT activism have prompted many companies to change course. Late last year Walmart rolled back its pro-LGBT diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. Target, Toyota, John Deere, Lowe’s, Tractor Supply, Harley Davidson, and other corporations have moved away from DEI as well.

However, Costco has made headlines for refusing to end its DEI policies.

As we have said many times, it’s deeply troubling when multimillion dollar corporations use their wealth and influence to promote radical, pro-LGBT ideas. It’s clear that DEI is unpopular among Americans, and customers are tired of pro-LGBT pandering from the stores where they shop.

Costco — and other corporations like them — would be wise to recognize that and stop promoting an agenda that is out of step with most Americans.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Montana Legislature Debates Bill Similar to One Arkansas Passed in 2023

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Recently Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Sara Beth Nolan spoke to the Montana House Judiciary Committee in support of a bill that requires schools, prisons, domestic violence shelters, and other included facilities to designate spaces like locker rooms, restrooms, and sleeping quarters as either males or females.

The bill is similar to a measure Arkansas passed in 2023.

Act 317 by Rep. Mary Bentley (R – Perryville) and Sen. Dan Sullivan (R – Jonesboro) protects privacy in public school locker rooms, showers, restrooms, changing areas, and similar facilities. The law requires public schools to designate these facilities for “male” or “female” use. It also addresses sleeping accommodations for students on overnight school trips — something that has been a serious problem for students in other states.

Laws like these are necessary to protect students from federal policy changes that seem to come with each election cycle.

In 2016 the Obama Administration issued federal “guidelines” directing every public school in America — including schools in Arkansas — to let biological males use girls’ locker rooms, showers, bathrooms, and similar facilities at school. The Trump Administration rescinded those federal policies in 2018, which gave schools a brief reprieve, but the Biden Administration moved to reinstate the policies shortly after the 2020 election.

Since his inauguration last week, President Trump has issued a series of executive orders addressing issues like this one, but a future president could repeal those executive orders.

State laws can help clarify how public schools protect student privacy in the face of changing federal policy.

You can watch ADF’s committee testimony below.

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