Fortune 500 companies have begun distancing themselves at an accelerating rate from the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI). We at 1792 Exchange applaud every business choosing free enterprise over activism, merit over discrimination, neutrality over ideology. Tractor Supply, Harley-Davidson, Lowe’s, Walmart, McDonald’s, and Target are among those moving back towards neutrality. This is welcome progress.
But the process is far from over.
For more than two decades, the CEI has increasingly rewarded companies for aggressively pushing divisive gender ideology. Them Before Us documented in their recent report, among other things, that the HRC has been wielding the index to pressure corporations into policies that permanently harm children — most notably the requirement that companies provide health insurance coverage for sex-denying drugs and surgeries for minor dependents.
Shockingly, 568 companies still affirmed in the 2026 CEI survey that they provide health insurance payments for “gender transition” drugs and surgeries for children.
This is unacceptable.
Corporations should not be funding mass medical experimentation on children through employer-provided family health plans — this is NOT healthcare. These interventions permanently and catastrophically devastate the minds, bodies, and futures of children.
Encouragingly, some executives have become exhausted by the relentless, ever-escalating demands of HRC and others. They’re worn out by ever-shifting external priorities pushed by activist groups. They want to get back to creating shareholder value, serving customers, and treating every employee fairly under the law. Quite simply, they want to get back to business.
Durable neutrality requires both dropping activist surveys, such as the CEI, and proactively implementing policies that shield companies from ideological capture and protect the most vulnerable. Without question, it demands clear protections for children in employee health plans.
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Corporations already have a proven roadmap to do this. Walmart has effectively established explicit carve-outs prohibiting coverage for gender-transition interventions on minors. And if the largest private-sector employer in the world can do it, every one of the 568 companies on the list still providing these benefits can too.
The medical case against these interventions on minors grows clearer by the day. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons has concluded there is “insufficient evidence” that the benefits of gender-related surgeries outweigh the risks and recommends delaying them until at least age 19. The American Medical Association affirms that surgical interventions in minors should generally be deferred to adulthood. Even ACLU attorneys have acknowledged in court that there is no solid evidence linking the denial of these procedures to completed suicides. Shockingly absent from this discussion is the American Academy of Pediatrics — the association of doctors charged with caring for our children — who should be leading the charge to protect our children.
Now, a major study published this month from Finland reinforces this warning. Tracking more than 2,000 young people who contacted gender clinics, researchers found psychiatric needs were already high before referral and rose sharply afterward. Among those who received hormones or surgery, the need for mental health treatment increased dramatically, from roughly 10 to 22 percent before to 55 to 61 percent after. The interventions not only did not resolve underlying issues, but in fact, they were associated with further deterioration.
This evidence aligns with the landmark declaration issued by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on December 18, 2025. After a comprehensive, peer-reviewed evidence review, Secretary Kennedy declared that sex-rejecting procedures, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries such as mastectomies and vaginoplasties, are neither safe nor effective for treating gender dysphoria in minors and fail to meet professionally recognized standards of health care. The federal government moved to bar federal funding and hospital participation in these procedures for children.
Corporations covering these experimental treatments are not being compassionate. They are exposing children to irreversible harm while ignoring the growing medical and regulatory consensus.
Parents and shareholders deserve transparency about which companies are still complicit in these attacks on children.
Business leaders: this is the time to lead. The data is clear. The legal and market risks of participating in the transing of kids are only increasing. As the evidence of short- and long-term harm mounts, so does the culpability of companies that knowingly fund the permanent damage.
Drop the scorecards. Drop the harmful practices.
Institute protections for minors in health plans. Refuse to fund experimental medical “treatments.” Promote policies and practices that protect our children and families. And if you want a trusted partner to craft policies that endure beyond the next election, lawsuit, or cultural fad, 1792 Exchange is here to help.
Corporate America’s disengagement from the HRC CEI is a positive first step. But one step is not a journey. Durable neutrality, with clear policies that protect children and refocus on business, is the destination. The companies that reach it will not only safeguard our children and families, but they will protect themselves. It is a win-win situation.
We stand ready to help them get there.
Douglas H. Napier is the Executive Chairman and CEO of 1792 Exchange.
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