State Farm is backing down Monday after outrage over its plan to donate books promoting transgenderism to schools and public libraries for children as young as five years old.
“State Farm’s support of a philanthropic program, GenderCool, has been the subject of news and customer inquiries,” reads a May 23 email from Victor Terry, State Farm’s chief diversity officer, to State Farm agents, according to the popular Twitter account @LibsofTikTok, which often breaks news on cultural issues.
BREAKING: @StateFarm sent out a mass email to their staff today stating “we will no longer support that program” after they were exposed for supporting a project to push LGBTQ books into schools.
A source tells me “the agents were really upset when we found out.” W pic.twitter.com/55P1QJ0oLa— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 23, 2022
The program was intended to promote “inclusivity,” but State Farm will no longer support it, Terry wrote.
“Conversations about gender and identity should happen at home with parents,” reads Terry’s email. “We don’t support required curriculum in schools on this topic.”
“We will no longer support that program,” State Farm’s chief diversity officer continued. “We will continued to explore how we can support organizations that provide tools and resources that align with our commitment to diversity and inclusion.” The company also said it supports organizations “providing resources for parents to have these conversations.”
Earlier on Monday, news broke that the car insurance company encouraged its Florida agents to volunteer to receive books about gender identity and donate them to their community schools or public libraries by the end of April. The three books — “A Kids Book About Being Transgender,” “A Kids Book About Being Non-Binary,” and “A Kids Book About Being Inclusive” — are intended for kindergarten and above.
“The project’s goal is to increase representation of LGBTQ+ books and support our communities in having challenging, important and empowering conversations with children age 5+,” a leaked internal email showed.
That internal email said that the insurance giant is deploying the project nationwide, not just in Florida. About 550 State Farm agents and employees will have the opportunity to donate the books to a local teacher, community center, or library, according to the email.
In Florida, books promoting transgenderism such as the ones State Farm is donating would not be allowed in young children’s classrooms come July 1, when Florida’s new parental rights law goes into effect.
The email caused a stir on social media, with many Twitter users reacting to the news by saying they would cancel or avoid State Farm insurance policies.