Home Depot Ends Partnership with LGBTQ Youth Program: One America News Network
![EL CERRITO, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 21: In an aerial view, a sign is seen posted on the exterior of a Home Depot store on February 21, 2023 in El Cerrito, California. Home improvement retailer Home Depot announced plans to spend an estimated $1 billion to raise pay and benefits for hourly workers at its stores. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)](https://www.oann.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/GettyImages-1468291198.webp)
OAN Staff Blake Wolf
11:24 AM – Wednesday, August 28, 2024
Before the company discreetly ended it, in the hopes of avoiding the press and consumer backlash, the Home Depot brand had previously partnered with an LGBTQ program targeted towards elementary-age students, “The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation.”
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It seeks to “create LBGTQ+ and gender inclusive schools, prevent bias-based bullying, and support transgender and non-binary students.”
Additionally, the partnership with the HRC Foundation had also been expanded to include the “Welcoming Schools” program, which provides students with information regarding “pansexual” and “nonbinary” identities.
“We are dedicated to intensifying our efforts to make a meaningful, sustainable difference in supporting change in our communities,” said Kelie Charles, Home Depot’s senior director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. “Our values guide us on everything we do. Supporting the Welcoming Schools and HBCU Programs are just the beginning of the expansion of our partnership with the HRC Foundation.”
However, as of October 2022, Charles no longer works for the Home Depot company, according to her Linkedin.
The “Welcoming Schools program” partnership was announced back in 2022. Home Depot claimed that it provided “educational” programming for students to learn about transgender and LGBTQ terms, as well as K-12 lesson plans to seamlessly implement the ideologies into the classroom.
“While The Home Depot has partnered with the HRC Foundation in the past to advance meaningful change, we’ve expanded our partnership to support multiple initiatives that align with key commitments around advancing education for all, specifically within diverse communities,” the announcement added.
The Welcoming Schools website lays out their initiative in length.
“HRC Foundation’s Welcoming Schools is the most comprehensive bias-based bullying prevention program in the nation to provide LGBTQ+ and gender inclusive professional development training, lesson plans, booklists and resources specifically designed for educators and youth-serving professionals. Our program uses an intersectional, anti-racist lens dedicated to actionable policies and practices. We uplift school communities with critical tools to embrace family diversity, create LGBTQ+ and gender inclusive schools, prevent bias-based bullying, and support transgender and non-binary students.”
One lesson plan explores gender identity through a “Gender Snowperson” and it specifically targets children in third grade through eighth grade.
“Let students know that gender is your internal sense of being a girl, boy, both or neither. There are many ways that people identify their gender, and there are many genders,” the lesson plan stated. “A simple way to explain this to students is that when a baby is born, a doctor or midwife looks at their body/anatomy and says they are a girl, boy or intersex. However, babies can’t talk yet, so they can’t tell us how they feel. When they start to talk, they may say they are a girl or a boy, both or neither.”
The Welcoming Schools website also includes a “Gender Support Checklist” meant to question children’s parental support at home in relation to their gender identities, should they be non-conforming.
“Always ask the student about family dynamics,” the checklist stated. “Some students may not use pronouns at all. You may also have students who use multiple pronouns.”
However, the “woke” ideological indoctrination campaign did not last, as a Home Depot spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the partnership ended in 2023. Additionally, no Home Depot spokesperson has explicitly admitted their reason for ending the partnership.
“The Home Depot stopped working with HRC last year, so we’re not the appropriate contact to comment on their programs. For any questions about HRC, it’s probably better to reach out to them directly. In the past, we had funded … two conferences that trained educators on how to prevent bullying using the Human Rights Campaign’s Welcoming Schools program.”
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