America First Legal Files Federal Civil Rights Complaint Against Penguin Random House, World’s Largest Trade Publisher, for Illegal Race- and Sex-Based Employment Practices
Originally published December 16, 2025
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DEI by Another Name
July 30, 2026
In response to legal, political, consumer, or shareholder pressures, companies are increasingly replacing “DEI” terminology with broader terms such as “Inclusion,” “Culture,” or “Belonging,” while providing little explanation as to whether the changes are substantive or primarily cosmetic. For example, CVS Health renamed its public-facing DEI page to ”Inclusion & Belonging” without issuing a public statement explaining the change. The company also stopped referencing a diversity pay metric for leadership in their annual 10-K filing. Similarly, Home Depot quietly removed its DEI webpage and replaced it with a ”Living Our Values“ section. While these changes alter the public branding, they do not necessarily clarify whether the companies’ underlying policies or priorities have materially changed. From a shareholder perspective, this lack of transparency can create uncertainty about a company’s strategic direction and how it intends to approach politically and socially contentious issues going forward. It is in companies’ best fiduciary interest to clearly communicate whether they are maintaining, modifying, or discontinuing DEI-related initiatives rather than simply changing terminology. Providing that clarity allows shareholders and other stakeholders to better understand the company’s priorities and evaluate whether its policies remain focused on advancing its core business objectives and long-term fiduciary responsibilities. Home Depot’s Previous DEI Page vs Its “Rebranded” Page
How Companies Have Responded to the SPLC
July 30, 2026
Growing scrutiny of the Southern Poverty Law Center has sparked a broader conversation about how its “hate group” list is being used to blacklist mainstream Christian and conservative nonprofits from corporate charitable giving programs, most notably through Benevity, one of the largest employee-match platforms, used by hundreds of the Fortune 500. Below, we track how companies are responding to the public call to distance themselves from the SPLC and to stop using its designations to discriminate in corporate giving. 7 Publicly removed the SPLC filter 5 Confirmed no politicized filters 5 Distanced themselves from the SPLC 2 Dodged or downplayed the filter 7 Publicly removed the SPLC filter Salesforce Bowyer Research (Substack) Mastercard Bowyer Research (Substack) Texas Instruments Bowyer Research (Substack) AT&T Bowyer Research (Substack) NVIDIA Daily Signal Microsoft Daily Signal DoorDash Daily Signal 5 Confirmed they do not use politicized hate-group filters for charitable eligibility Meta Bowyer Research (Substack) Morgan Stanley Bowyer Research (Substack) Citi Citi Foundation statement McDonald’s American Express 5 Publicly distanced themselves from the SPLC Reported together in a single account of tech companies stepping back from the SPLC. Source: Daily Signal → Alphabet Mastercard Meta PayPal Salesforce 2 Dodged or downplayed the SPLC filter Starbucks …
Schwab and Walmart get it right on not covering “gender transitions” for minors
Op-Ed
July 28, 2026
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
List
July 28, 2026
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. HRC reports this information after a corporate representative uses an online HRC portal to upload, or affirm a previously uploaded copy of, the company’s Summary Plan Description (SPD) or Summary of Material Modification (SMM) that explicitly shows coverage for transition-related care. The representative must also upload a copy of the company’s applicable clinical guidelines (medical policy). 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 …
DOJ Sides With Insurer That Won’t Cover “Transition” Surgery for Minor
July 27, 2026
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 …