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Posted on 07/21/2024 7:47:14 AM PDT by MtnClimber
The so-called “Corporate Equality Index” (CEI) from the radical left-wing Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has gained plenty of attention in recent years as one of the primary engines behind the rise of corporate wokeism. But HRC has another lesser-known ratings system, the “Municipal Equality Index” (MEI), that is driving woke policies in city governments – and may even be rewarding city officials for breaking state laws.
HRC published its first edition of the CEI in 2002, a 100-point scale supposedly designed to score companies on how “inclusive” and accommodating they are to minority groups. Over time, however, the CEI has metastasized into a tool for the left to force corporate compliance with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies and LGBT ideology.
In order for companies to obtain a high CEI score, they must not only employ members of the LGBT community, but also explicitly and publicly endorse transgender rights, work with transgender influencers, and visibly participate in events such as pride parades.
But why do companies care so much about having a good CEI score?
For starters, CEI ratings are relayed to administrators at elite universities. Companies with a poor score may struggle to attract top talent from the Ivy League or other renowned schools.
Additionally, major financial firms also care about CEI scores. Venture capitalists may be hesitant to invest in companies with low CEI ratings for fear that they could face public backlash. As part of the so-called “environmental, social, and governance” (ESG) investing movement, firms are more likely to invest in companies with high CEI scores.
In effect, HRC has succeeded in convincing investors, employers, employees, and many consumers that a company’s CEI score matters – giving HRC broad power to dictate corporate policy on contentious social issues by threatening to tank a brand’s CEI rating. As political podcaster James Lindsay told The New York Post last year, the Human Rights campaign administers the CEI ranking “like an extortion racket, like the Mafia.”
Moreover, the Post reports that HRC “sends representatives to corporations every year telling them what kind of stuff they have to make visible at the company” – a list that includes pride flags and demonstrations of corporate loyalty to DEI dogma.
While the CEI controversy has been well-documented for years, MEI, launched in 2011, is less known to the general public but may nonetheless be even more effective at infusing left-wing ideology in American culture.
According to HRC’s MEI guidelines, cities lose points if municipal buildings have “sex-segregated facilities” – or restrooms specifically for men and women. Points are also awarded if city employees receive “transgender-inclusive healthcare benefits” – in other words, taxpayer-funded sex change operations.
Cities receive two points if they have policies explicitly banning so-called “conversion therapy,” which includes counseling to help youth confused about their biological sex. Two more points are awarded for having “LGBTQ-inclusive diversity training for all city staff.”
Even more alarmingly, city governments can apparently earn points for violating city or state laws that conflict with LGBT ideology. According to the MEI criteria, points are awarded to cities that are actively “testing the limits of state restrictions” in states that have instituted policies like a prohibition on biological males using women’s restroom and locker room facilities. This provision can be interpreted as tacitly encouraging city officials to find workarounds to state laws protecting female-only spaces.
Additionally, cities earn three points on the MEI index for “how actively the city has been pursuing pro-equality laws and policies.” HRC will also deduct MEI points if city officials are recorded saying anything that questions LGBT ideology, including raising concerns about hormone therapy and gender transition surgery for minors.
Recent stories about individuals being charged with felony hate crimes for scuffing gay pride flags painted onto city streets are one prominent example of MEI in action. Under the MEI guidelines, cities are awarded points for painting the flags – and for prosecuting those who are accused of defacing them. (Of course, many of these same cities refuse to prosecute actual criminals.)
In the case of the MEI, every city that gets a glowing rating from HRC enjoys positive media attention and a greater chance of attracting corporate interests also looking to boost their CEI scores. Furthermore, city officials can use their MEI rating as a “resume booster” for future employment with liberal organizations. Officials who are particularly aggressive in pushing LGBT ideology are awarded glowing praise from HRC and invitations to high-profile events hosted by the organization.
While many Americans are rightly opposed to corporations pushing controversial left-wing social politics and LGBT ideology, ultimately private companies can make these choices as they see fit and the free market will reply in kind – as it has in instances like the Bud Light controversy.
However, MEI presents a far more alarming prospect – that of a radical left-wing nonprofit group using its political and cultural influence to pressure city officials into compliance with an extremist partisan agenda. While most officials in major cities are already progressive Democrats and likely agree with HRC on most fronts, voters at the very least deserve to know more about the shadowy entities influencing their elected leaders.
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DEI seems to be unpopular with much of the public, but it is still being pushed on every part of society. Will corporate leaders have the backbone to say “enough of this madness”?
Jus because women or girls want a ‘turn’ a doing what men do doesn’t mean she should be given it....and vice versa.
“DEI seems to be unpopular with much of the public, but it is still being pushed on every part of society. ...”
The left never gives up, never stops.
Well I guess San Francisco will be on top of the MEI list, although it is destructing from within.
“In order for companies to obtain a high CEI score, they must not only employ members of the LGBT community, but also explicitly and publicly endorse transgender rights, work with transgender influencers, and visibly participate in events such as pride parades.”
Then henceforth I will seek out companies with the lowest possible CEI score to do business with. This works both ways. I will use it as a giant flag that states they do not want my business.
TRUMP NEEDS SOME SERIOUS BROOMS & WILLING SWEEPERS.
Aren't they afraid guys like Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton would sue them over plagiarism
When Iwas working, the worst bosses I ever had were women. They were real man haters and worse than the worst guy I ever worked for.
There are plenty of forced programs. Or... more accurately, bribes and shakedowns. “Affordable housing “grants.” Section 8. “Affirmatively furthering Fair Housing.” Forced zoning changes. How many here live near cities? How many single unit houses are being built? Out west of here when I recently visited family in Oregon the two cities had nothing but huge apartment complexes being built. No single houses anywhere. This use to be against zoning and Oregon’s stupid “Urban Growth” rules. Now.... The feds have bribed the state and counties with “grants” and developers have been given free rein to buy up every scrap of land and build as many multi story apartments as possible. No new infrastructure to support them, no new roads, no new water resources, no more sewage capacity. Just apartments everywhere. Add to that more “grants” to increase “diversity” which means every new city employee is getting recruited from failed democrat cities like Baltimore. One city hired this awful police chief who changed the police department dress code so she could continue to wear her ridiculous weave and three inch long fake nails in the job. “Woke” is just another insidious cloward liven plot to burn it all down.
Why does the right wing not have similar ratings?
Thomas Jefferson said America would be destroyed from within….. And, he’s being proven correct.
The left know how to institutionalize their agenda. The right is asleep at the wheel.
Why doesn’t the right have similar grading schemes for corporations and government that grade them how merit based, patriotic, and pro-freedom, un-woke they are?
It's a tactic from the Chicom during the Revolution. Shame the people who don't go along.
Businesses don't like being labeled anti-this or anti-that.
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