Facing an uproar for its support of the transgender agenda, State Farm Insurance says it is dropping its alliance with a transgender group that wanted to supply indoctrination materials aimed at children to schools and libraries.
State Farm had said it would support a group called GenderCool, which was targeting children as young as 5 with books titled “Being Transgender,” “Being Inclusive” and “Being Non-Binary.”
On Monday, the conservative group Consumers’ Research responded with a video titled “Like a Creepy Neighbor.”
“State Farm tells us they’re a good neighbor,” the narrator begins. “But would a good neighbor target five-year-olds for conversations about sexual identity? That’s what State Farm is doing.”
Like a creepy neighbor, @StateFarm is there…https://t.co/q9N18curEZpic.twitter.com/mkbCBvE29L
— Consumers’ Research (@ConsumersFirst) May 23, 2022
On Tuesday, State Farm surrendered.
State Farm spokesman Roszell Gadson told The Washington Post that the partnership ended after it had “been the subject of news and customer inquiries.”
“Conversations about gender and identity should happen at home with parents,” Gadson said in a statement. “We don’t support required curriculum in schools on this topic. We support organizations providing resources for parents to have these conversations. We no longer support the program allowing for distribution of books in schools.”
“As a result, we have made the decision we will no longer be affiliated with the organization,” the company said on its website.
According to a report from RedState, Rand Harbert, State Farm executive vice president and chief agency, sales and marketing officer, sent out a voice message to agents and others about the book project.
The outlet, citing a transcript it obtained, reported that Harbert said, “First and foremost, I want you to hear directly from me that we made a mistake with our involvement in this program — and we’re sorry. As soon as we fully understood the issue Monday morning, the first decision we made was to cease our involvement with this organization.
“Let me be clear, our position is that conversations with children about gender and identity need to happen at home.”
Harbert then made it appear as though State Farm was not fully aware of to whom it was giving money and what would be done with the cash.
“As much as we would like to be aware of every program and involved in every decision, it’s simply not possible as most of these gifts are small. In this case, it was $40,000,” Harbert said, according to RedState.
“However, we recognize even small decisions can have a big impact, and we’re taking the necessary steps, so nothing like this happens again,” he said.
RedState also reported that a source at State Farm’s corporate offices said all of its philanthropic ventures are being reviewed.
The outlet described conversations it had with agents whose names were not used.
“We’re an insurance company who’s known to be conservative,” one agent from the Midwest was quoted as saying. “That is why this is so shocking. I can assure you (I’m on a private Facebook page for agents only at 4,000 members) that 99 percent of us are beyond pissed.”
“A big ‘why’ that was circling among agents and in private Facebook groups Monday night was: ‘How in the world was something like this green-lighted and not run by agents’ groups for vetting?’” RedState quoted another agent as saying.
“No way this would have ever been green-lighted had this been run by agents.”
