John Deere backtracks after sponsoring kids’ LGBT-themed race

Tractor company John Deere has pledged to no longer support “external social or cultural awareness parades”, after it was slammed for sponsoring a LGBT-themed event for kids as young as three.

Posting on X, filmmaker Robby Starbuck revealed that the firm had funded the Capital City Pride Little Rainbow Run in Des Moines, Iowa in June, pushed staff to use “personal pronouns” in emails, and promoted pro-LGBT training resources.

Following criticism, John Deere has committed to ensuring that training materials do not contain “socially motivated messages” and stated that “pronoun identification” has never been company policy.

Concerns

In one training resource revealed by Starbuck, John Deere claimed that employees should report their colleagues if they hear them expressing concern that a new staff member who “used to be a man” is using the women’s toilets.

The guidance stated that revealing someone’s gender identity without consent is “a violation of someone’s privacy”, and saying they “‘used to be a man’ is not accurate. Trans women are women, and they’ve never not been a woman.”

In another instance, staff were pictured being shown the ‘Genderbread Person’ graphic, which claims there are an infinite number of gender identity ‘options’ and that sex ‘exists on a continuum’.

Harley-Davidson

Motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson has also come under fire for promoting trans ideology.

The company is a founding member of Wisconsin’s LGBT Chamber of Commerce, which has campaigned against legislation that would have protected gender-confused children from trans-affirming procedures.

Harley-Davidson also sponsors the organisation’s LGBTQ+ Entrepreneur Bootcamp, and has welcomed graduates of the scheme to its offices with a rainbow flag cake.

Starbuck commented that most customers “just want the companies we shop at to stop virtue signaling about divisive social, cultural and political issues. That’s what would truly make businesses welcome to all. Stop dividing us by injecting wokeness.”