Insurance company State Farm has caved and has terminated its partnership with the “woke” GenderCool Project following a widespread backlash.
State Farm partnered with GenderCool on a program to distribute transgender-themed books to teachers, community centers, and libraries, explicitly targeting children as young as kindergartners.
The program described itself as seeking to “help diversify classroom, community center, and library bookshelves with a collection of books to help bring clarity and understanding to the national conversation about Being Transgender, Inclusive and Non-Binary.”
However, after a media exposé based on a whistleblower email caught the company by surprise on Monday, State Farm has now pulled out of the deal.
Jose Soto, State Farm’s Corporate Responsibility Analyst, sent an email to all Florida agents that said: “The project’s goal is to increase representation of LGBTQ+ books and support out communities in having challenging, important and empowering conversations with children Age 5+.
“Nationwide, approximately 550 State Farm agents and employees will have the opportunity to donate this 3 book bundle to their local teacher, community center or library of their choice.
“Along with donating the books, we would encourage the agent to highlight our commitment to diversity on their social media pages.”
He added they were looking to recruit six agents in Florida “that would be interested in participating in this unique project, by receiving these books in March, then donating them to their community by the end of April.”
Jennifer Van Laar, a reporter for Redstate who broke the story, said:
“MORE DETAILS on @StateFarm’s now-terminated partnership with GenderCool: Agents told me that it’s possible that Soto is a low-level (possibly considered mid-level) emp 4+ levels down from the Chief Diversity Officer and possibly went rogue on this, since west coast agents were blindsided by the news and knew nothing about the program until today.
“These agents, top producers who knew Victor Terry before he went to the corporate office in 2020, say they can’t imagine him greenlighting this program.
“They are vehemently against these issues being discussed in schools, without parental involvement, with young children.
“One agent of 20+ years said to me, “If they had not immediately terminated this, I would have been forced to resign since I will not be aligned with this in any way.”
“I’m also told that State Farm was not alerted or given an opportunity to respond to what was going to be published, and that phones were ringing off the hooks today both at the corporate offices and individual agent offices.
“I’m interested in hearing more from State Farm on what the hell happened here.”
🧵MORE DETAILS on @StateFarm's now-terminated partnership with GenderCool: Agents told me that it's possible that Soto is a low-level (possibly considered mid-level) emp 4+ levels down from the Chief Diversity Officer and possibly went rogue on this, since west coast agents were
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) May 24, 2022
given an opportunity to respond to what was going to be published, and that phones were ringing off the hooks today both at the corporate offices and individual agent offices. I'm interested in hearing more from State Farm on what the hell happened here. https://t.co/dGTQHII7bX
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) May 24, 2022
