McDonald's rolling back LGBT employment preference policies

A McDonald's restaurant in Albany, Oregon. Photo: AP Photo/Jenny Kane

McDonald's has started to move away from its "inclusivity" policy. According to The Associated Press, the international chain, headquartered in Chicago, is shutting down programs that prioritized LGBT individuals for leadership positions.

"On Monday it will retire specific goals for achieving diversity at senior leadership levels. It also intends to end a program that encourages its suppliers to develop diversity training and to increase the number of minority group members represented within their own leadership ranks," the report states.

Additionally, the company will no longer participate in external surveys that measures workplace inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees.

McDonald's is noted to be the latest major corporation to alter its approach in response to the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision banning affirmative action in college admissions, as well as the conservative backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. Companies such as Walmart, John Deere, Harley-Davidson, and others discontinued their DEI initiatives last year.

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