McDonald’s on Monday became the latest company to roll back certain diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, announcing plans to sunset “aspirational representation goals” and DEI requirements for suppliers while “pausing” participation in external surveys like the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index.

In an email, leadership said the changes come amid “the shifting legal landscape” following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the 2023 affirmative action case Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and after benchmarking with “other companies who are also re-evaluating their own programs.”

Among these are Ford Motor Company, Harley-Davidson, Molson Coors, Lowe’s, and Tractor Supply, each announcing plans within the last year to curb investments in DEI programs, including those focused on LGBTQ employees and communities.

Conservative activist Robby Starbuck has claimed credit for these decisions, though the nature and extent of the influence exerted by his campaigns targeting individual corporations’ DEI activities is not clear.

HRC’s Corporate Equality Index is a national benchmarking tool used to assess “corporate policies, practices, and benefits pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer employees,” according to six major metrics: “Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in U.S. Nondiscrimination Policy,” “Spousal and Domestic Partner Benefits,” “Transgender-Inclusive Benefits,” “Transgender Workplace Best Practices,” “Outreach and Engagement to the LGBTQ Community,” and “Corporate Social Responsibility.”

Releasing the 2025 CEI report on Tuesday, HRC said that “Despite anti-LGBTQ+ attacks on businesses, 72 companies joined the CEI for the first time – up almost five percent over last year,” totaling 1,449 businesses.

The organization notes that 765 earned a perfect score of 100 this year, with businesses demonstrating “substantial increases in inclusive practices and access to equitable benefits for all LGTBQ+ employees.”

“At its core, the work of the CEI is about making businesses stronger. Since the start of this work 22 years ago, we’ve seen drastic shifts in corporate America toward more equitable and inclusive working conditions, family formation and healthcare benefits, and non-discrimination protections,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said in a press release.

“At times, progress meets backlash, but companies continue to dedicate the time and resources to reinforcing workplace inclusion,” she said. “As a result, they are more competitive and more creative while attracting and retaining top talent and widening their consumer base. Our door is open for companies looking to learn more about supporting every single employee so they can bring their best to work.” 

In a statement to The Advocate, RaShawn Hawkins, senior director of the HRC Foundation’s Workplace Equality Program, said “When companies are transparent and open about their commitment to workplace inclusion policies, it only helps to attract and retain top talent – which is why the 2025 CEI has record participation from more than 1,400 companies.”

Hawkins added,”There’s no changing the fact that with 30 percent of Gen Z identifying as LGBTQ+ and the community holding $1.4 trillion in spending power, commitments to inclusion are directly tied to long-term business growth. Those who abandon these commitments are shirking their responsibility to their employees, consumers, and shareholders.”

At the same time, as Republicans take control of both chambers of Congress along with the White House, right-wing opposition to corporate DEI, including LGBTQ inclusive policies and programs, is expected to accelerate well beyond the calls for boycotts and online pressure campaigns seen in recent years.

Last month, Reuters reported that after he takes office, President-elect Donald Trump plans to use the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to challenge DEI programs at companies and universities.

The news agency noted that the division’s mandate in Trump’s second term would mean enforcers will be tasked with investigating policies that are designed to benefit the very same groups, like Black and other marginalized communities, that the division was established to protect with Congress’s passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

Per OCR’s website, the division “works to uphold the civil and constitutional rights of all persons in the United States, particularly some of the most vulnerable members of our society” enforcing “federal statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), disability, religion, familial status, national origin, and citizenship status.”

Gay U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) will chair the LGBTQ Congressional Equality Caucus in the newly seated 119th Congress, he told Axios on Friday.

“Over the next several years, we will see a constant barrage of attacks on the rights and dignity of the queer community — especially against our transgender siblings,” Takano said. “I will lead our coalition of openly-LGBTQI+ members and our allies in the fight to both defend the queer community and push equality forward, including by reintroducing the Equality Act.”

The caucus was founded in 2008 by then-U.S. Reps. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), the latter going on to represent the Badger State in the U.S. Senate since 2013, when she became the first LGBTQ member to serve in the upper chamber.

Led in the last Congress by U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), the caucus’s chair and eight co-chairs are out and LGBTQ. There are a couple dozen vice chairs and more than 160 other members, all Democrats.

In recent battles over must-pass appropriations bills, the caucus opposed House Republicans’ insistence on including anti-LGBTQ “poison pill” policy riders, meticulously chronicling their efforts to politicize government funding.

The caucus has also fought against and documented legislation proposed by House GOP members that takes aim at LGBTQ and especially transgender rights.

Takano’s tenure as chair will begin just as Republicans plan to push forward a bill that would prohibit trans women and girls from competing on women and girls’ sports teams, and just after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) enacted a new policy that would ban transgender people from bathrooms in the U.S. Capitol building.

“Our community will have a strong defender against Republicans’ incoming attacks with Representative Takano as our chair,” Pocan said.

First elected in 2013, the California congressman is the first gay Asian member to serve in either chamber. He is also the top Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

President-elect Donald Trump promised to enact anti-trans policies on his first day in office through executive orders, including one that would officially recognize just two genders.

His remarks came over the weekend during an AmericaFest 2024 rally in Phoenix, Arizona, hosted by Turning Point USA, according to video shared by C-Span.

“I will sign executive orders to end child sexual mutilation, get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high schools,” he told the crowd.

“Under the Trump administration, it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female,” Trump said, also vowing to “keep men out of women’s sports.”

“With the stroke of my pen on day one we’re going to stop the transgender lunacy,” he said.