Lowe’s joins growing list of companies scaling back DEI policies

Lowe’s (NYSE:LOW) is the latest company to dial back its diversity, equity and inclusion programs, buckling under online criticism of its policies, with conservative activist Robby Starbuck claiming credit for the move.

The home improvement retailer will no longer participate in LGBTQ advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, it said in an internal note viewed by Bloomberg.

Lowe’s (LOW) will combine its business resource groups representing diverse employees into one organization, and will only sponsor community events related to affordable housing, disaster relief and skilled trades education.

The company had eight business resource groups, according to its 2022 diversity report, representing associates from the Black, Latino and LGBTQ communities, among others.

“I messaged Lowe’s (LOW) executives last week to let them know that I planned to expose their woke policies,” Starbuck posted on social media platform X on Monday, adding that “they preemptively made big changes.”

“We are winning and one by one we WILL bring sanity back to corporate America,” he declared.

But a Lowe’s spokesman clarified that Starbuck reached out after the company already began revising its DEI program.

Starbuck’s online campaign against DEI policies of Tractor Supply (TSCO), Deere (DE) and Harley-Davidson (HOG) have led to these companies scaling back or scrapping diversity programs.

Brown-Forman (BF.B), which makes Jack Daniel’s whiskey, ended its DEI programs last week, just before Starbuck released a video criticizing its policies.

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