The leading organization pushing the woke LGBTQ+ agenda is the dubiously named Human Rights Campaign. For years, HRC targeted and bullied corporations into capitulating to its woke policy agenda, which meant catering to all its radical leftist promotion of sexual deviancy, all under the banner of human rights.

Fear of being labeled “homophobic” or “bigoted” or any other litany of misleading and derogatory smears pushed businesses to become “allies” of the “human rights” cause and adopt policies and practices that promoted the gender cult.

This was often seen in displays of pro-Pride products, in the public “celebration” of Pride Month, or in the sponsorship of various LGBTQ+ events, such as Pride Marches. It seemed like everywhere one turned, another rainbow flag was flying in front of a business.

HRC made sure the message was clear: the future is gay.

One of HRC’s primary means of bullying businesses is via its Corporate Equality Index, in which it convinces major corporations to share workplace information to receive a grade. Of course, the more the corporation embraces and pushes HRC’s pro-LGBTQ message, the better its score.

In other words, HRC effectively bullies businesses to conform or face negative press and a false framing of being dangerous to the LGBTQ community.

This explains why, in the spring of 2023, Bud Light thought it would be a great idea to plaster the face of gender-bender Dylan Mulvaney on cans of what had been, for years, America’s number one-selling beer. As everyone knows, that triggered a massive backlash, with Bud Light turning into a pariah overnight as Americans across the country finally said enough.

That event served to unleash a cascading effect against the corporate push of radical leftist ideology in its products to the American public. In time, the public backlash against the incessant pushing of radical gender-bending ideology caused a number of America’s Fortune 500 companies to finally grow a backbone and stop their kowtowing to the HRC.

Corporations like Walmart, McDonald’s, and Tractor Supply are among a growing list of businesses that have pulled out of HRC’s Corporate Equality Index and are no longer giving any internal workplace information to the leftist organization.

Indeed, HRC recently announced it will lay off 20% of its staff as part of a cost-saving restructuring due to a sustained revenue decline. HRC leadership admitted that its spending has outpaced revenue, while claiming that the decrease in staffing would not negatively affect its ability to advance its LGBTQ agenda.

Those sentiments may be more wishful thinking than reality, given that HRC is becoming increasingly irrelevant to the corporate world. In 2026, HRC saw 65% of Fortune 500 companies that had previously participated in its Corporate Equality Index leave. That leaves HRC with just 131 participating Fortune 500 companies, down from 377 a year ago.

Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, also observed, “The number of Fortune 500 companies abandoning participation in HRC’s radical activist index is yet another sign that ESG and woke capitalism were never about profits.” And that is the key. These companies primarily exist to make money, which was never HRC’s motive.

While the eroding of HRC’s radical leftist influence is good news, this does not mean that Rainbow Mafia goons are going to stop pushing and bullying corporate America into promoting their sexual deviant ideology. There is still much work to be done to counter the morally and socially corrupting influence of outfits like HRC.