Corporations routinely use their platforms to voice support for humanitarian causes and human rights. Unfortunately, many companies provide funds, data, or other resources to advocacy groups leading highly controversial social campaigns —particularly on gender and sexuality— often backing only one side of the debate. Such one-sided giving alienates significant portions of their customers, employees, and shareholders and exposes companies to reputational, market, and legal risk.
The 2025 edition of the Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index found that 64% of scored companies support non-profits that are influencing public policy by working with such groups. This includes HPE, which has a perfect score1 on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index.
The Human Rights Campaign is a leading driver in getting companies to promote transgender activism. To get 100 points on its Corporate Equality Index,2 HPE agreed to adopt radical adolescent transgender treatments recommended by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH),3 a group widely criticized for its ideological bias and lack of scientific rigor.4 These treatments include gender transition surgery, cross-sex hormone therapy, menstrual suppression, and puberty blockers. Supporting this activism may also alienate employees who have religious or other moral objections to supporting these kinds of radical treatments with their healthcare premiums.
HRC also pressures companies to take sides on political engagement. It rewards companies that support legislation like the Equality Act, which would pose serious threats to religious freedom, free speech, and women’s rights.5 But they will deduct up to 25 points out of 100 for companies that have “a large-scale official or public anti-LGBTQ+ blemish on their recent records,” like when Fox News gave positive coverage to Florida’s parental rights law.6] (sic) This kind of pressure induced corporations like Disney,7 InBev (Bud Light),8 and Target9 into marketing decisions that have significantly and permanently harmed their brand value.
Many companies, including John Deere, Jack Daniels, Harley Davidson, Lowes, Home Depot, Ford, and Coors, have already refocused their charitable support in a manner that acknowledges the diverse views held by their customers and employees.10 Many have also explicitly cut ties with the Human Rights Campaign as a part of this effort. HPE should do the same.
Given HPE’s stated commitment11 to a workplace supporting “individuals with different perspectives, experiences, and viewpoints,” shareholders are right to ask about the company’s commitments to political neutrality in this arena. Companies should not be supporting only one side of the debate on these divisive issues. As the Good for Business Coalition recently stated, companies should not be at the “forefront of political controversies,” but should instead focus on “creating economic value through excellence in the provision of goods and services.”12 1 https://www.hrc.org/resources/corporations/hewlett-packard-enterprise-co.
2 https://reports.hrc.org/corporate-equality-index-2025#scoring-criteria
3 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/26895269.2022.2100644
4 https://adflegal.org/article/leaked-files-reveal-ethical-concerns-pseudoscience-wpath-standards-care/
5 https://www.heritage.org/religious-liberty/commentary/misguided-fairness-all-act-would-undermine-religious-liberty
6 https://deadline.com/2022/04/human-rights-campaign-fox-news-florida-lgbtq-1234992739/
7 https://bowyerresearch.com/docs/Corporate%20Political%20Activism%20and%20Shareholder%20Value.pdf
8 https://www.newsweek.com/anheuser-busch-stock-drops-20-percent-bud-light-sales-struggle-1803680
9 https://nypost.com/2023/05/28/target-loses-10b-following-boycott-calls-over-lgbtq-friendly-clothing/
10 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13812241/american-brand-dei-rules-backlash.html
11 https://careers.hpe.com/inclusion
12 https://g4bcoalition.com/statement-of-principles/