Stefan Padfield: Don’t Ask Cisco About the ROI For Its DEI

Cisco’s DEI Under Scrutiny — Shareholders Insist on Measurable Returns

Schwab and Walmart get it right on not covering “gender transitions” for minors

Consider the millions of working parents who show up every day at their jobs, work hard to support their families and pay into their company’s healthcare plans. They trust that their premiums will fund genuine medical care, not repeat one of medicine’s darkest mistakes. In our not-so-distant past, frontal lobotomies were performed to “treat” psychiatric conditions — despite limited evidence of effectiveness. The operations had devastating long-term effects and no proven medical benefit. It was not long before the world realized what a serious mistake was being committed and put a stop to this abusive “treatment.” Today’s unproven “gender-affirming” interventions on minors use surgery, hormones and puberty blockers to address a mental health condition with similarly irreversible consequences: permanent sterilization, the removal of healthy organs and lifelong physical and emotional damage. No responsible modern healthcare plan would cover frontal lobotomies, yet many quietly fund these experimental sex-denying procedures on children. Let us not repeat that shameful history on our gender-dysphoric youths. This is not healthcare. These are not medically necessary procedures. These are not minor adjustments or reversible treatments. They are costly, permanently damaging experiments on our children, who lack the maturity and legal capacity to count the cost of …

550+ Companies Covering Sex-Denying Procedures for Minor Dependents

According to February 2026 data from the Human Rights Campaign, 550+ companies provide health insurance coverage for transgender medical interventions, including puberty blockers, hormones, and surgical procedures, to covered minor dependents through their employee health plans. These companies range from major financial institutions and law firms to retailers, insurers, and tech giants. Shareholders, customers, parents, and employees deserve to know where their companies stand. 1792 Exchange calls on every company on this list to adopt clear protections for minor dependents in their healthcare plans and get back to business. A&O Shearman Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation Billtrust Box Inc. Griffith Foods Group Hanover Insurance Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey HSBC Holdings Linklaters Mayer Brown MERGE Moderna Neuberger Berman Group NTT DATA Services NTT Global Data Centers Americas PGA TOUR Publicis Health Publicis Media Sony Interactive Entertainment Sony Music Sony Pictures Steptoe Sutherland Global Services

DOJ Sides With Insurer That Won’t Cover “Transition” Surgery for Minor

On July 13, 2026, the Department of Justice urged the Ninth Circuit to reverse a ruling that had ordered Premera Blue Cross to cover chest surgery for a young girl. The Justice Department’s brief argues the exclusion is not sex discrimination but a “sensible policy … rooted in biological reality, developmental psychology, and medical diagnosis.” Premera covers a mastectomy for a boy with gynecomastia and for a girl with breast cancer, but declines the same surgery when it is performed on a healthy adolescent, boys and girls alike. The line, the brief says, is the diagnosis, not the patient’s sex, and it reads the Supreme Court’s 2025 decision in Skrmetti to say exactly that. Every federal appeals court to weigh the question since, the brief notes, has rejected the lower court’s reasoning. The whole dispute turns on one phrase, “medically necessary.” That label rests heavily on the standards of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the same WPATH the FTC and multiple states are now suing for stripping surgical age limits without evidentiary basis and calling virtually every pediatric “transition” service “medically necessary.” The brief itself cites England’s Cass Review and a 2025 HHS review that found the evidence …

MassBio’s Open Letter: A Massive Constraint on Biopharmaceutical Businesses

Approximately 219 companies have signed a vague and contradictory open letter urging biopharmaceutical firms to abandon their core mission. MassBio, the Massachusetts-based DEI resource center, created an open letter calling on companies and their leadership to abide by unnecessary DEI measures. These measures implement diverse BIPOC policy practices into biopharmaceutical businesses. By joining, these signatory companies don’t receive any advancements within the medical sphere but subject themselves to vague social commitments that constrain biopharma principles and objectives. The open letter holds back biopharmaceutical businesses through explicit actions: DEI requirements in recruitment, hiring, executive compensation, external partnerships, and company programming. At 1792 Exchange, we recognize these practices are bad for business because they take away from the merit expectation found within leadership. No longer is simple experience being looked at for genuine business benefit; instead, diversity becomes standard. Meaning, a new business partnership looks for diversity over merit. Furthermore, the open letter also constrains these businesses through vague commitments: using corporate influence to promote internal DEI initiatives, encouraging employees to “self-educate on racism and contribute to the race dialogue,” and establishing leadership accountability for reporting microaggressions. Biopharmaceutical companies exist to advance medicine and improve patient outcomes—not to shape social or racial …

Microsoft Directs Benevity to Drop SPLC Filter

Microsoft has directed Benevity to stop using the SPLC’s “hate map” to filter nonprofits from its employee gift-matching program. The Daily Signal credits 1792 Exchange, alongside Bowyer Research and The Heritage Foundation, for the shareholder activism that is moving companies away from discriminating against conservatives. Thanks to shareholder activism from 1792 Exchange, Bowyer Research, The Heritage Foundation, and others, a growing list of companies has directed Benevity to stop using the SPLC. The list includes American Express, AT&T, Mastercard, McDonald’s, Nvidia, and Salesforce. The full article can be found in Daily Caller.