Brown-Forman scored a 100 out of 100 on the 2023-2024 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a political stakeholder group. By complying with the HRC’s controversial demands, Brown-Forman increases the risk of dividing employees, alienating customers and harming shareholders. The company provides a benefits package for employees which covers transgender medical procedures for covered employees and dependents, including children. It also uses sex and gender ideology criteria in employee recruitment, vendor selection, marketing, and philanthropic support. Brown-Forman forces employees to undergo multiple ideological trainings and uses its reputation, corporate funds, and political influence to support controversial sex and gender ideologies, organizations, and legislation. Brown-Forman requires its employees complete unconscious bias training. The company is a Ceres network member and supports the Equality Act. Brown-Forman opposed various state and local legislation intended to protect parental rights, girls’ sports, bathroom facilities, and gendered spaces. The company’s CEO, Lawson Whiting, signed the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion pledge, which includes a commitment to promote DEI through bias education training in the workplace. Brown-Forman is a member of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, which aims to demonetize advertisements and suppress content that “vilifies” individuals based on sexual orientation and gender identity, discusses “debated social issues in a negative or partisan context” or spreads “hate speech”. For these reasons, Brown-Forman receives a High Risk rating.