(LifeSiteNews) — “It’s time to expose Tractor Supply,” began the post on the X social media platform last month, highlighting the Fortune 500 company’s DEI policies. The rural lifestyle retailer soon ditched its woke agenda affecting 50,000 employees in 49 states.
“LGBTQIA+ training for employees” topped the list of Tractor Supply’s progressive misdeeds.
The corporate about-face was hailed as an example of the power of citizen activism, while government programs for diversity, equity, and inclusion are now being gutted in several red states.
The state of California, however, will be a tougher nut to crack. The nearly 250,000 employees of the Golden State are required by their departments to undergo DEI training that increasingly features LGBTQ content.
I work for the California Department of State Hospitals (DSH), whose roughly 13,000 employees provide mental health services to some 6,500 patients admitted into five state-run hospitals – Atascadero, Coalinga, Metropolitan (in Los Angeles County), Napa, and Patton.
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It took me about two hours to click through the recorded “DSH LGBTQ+ Training 2024,” a mandatory course about what so-called “LGBTQ affirming care is, how to deliver it and why it matters.”
A psychologist and a social worker at Napa State Hospital, which opened its doors to the mentally ill in 1875, kicked off the show by differentiating between “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”
I was informed that “sexual orientations” include “heterosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual and pansexual.”
Pansexual, according to my notes, “means that the person’s sexual behavior and attraction is rooted in connection with the other person, rather than the gender the other person chooses to adopt” – denying our bodily reality.
“Gender identities,” on the other hand, describe “the labels we put on ourselves regardless of our sexual orientation” and include woman, man, “trans-man, trans-woman, cisgender, transgender, gender non-binary, gender fluid and gender queer.”
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David, the social worker, next introduced the “Gender Unicorn.” The trendy infographic comes in multiple languages to inculcate in people “the difference between gender identity, gender expression, sex assigned at birth, and sexual and romantic orientation.”
Then it was time for a quiz. Question: “The patient’s legal name is Genisse Plant and records indicate that the patient was once in a sexual relationship with someone by the name of Patrick Gonzalez. What do we truly know about this person?”
The “correct answer” was: “We do not have enough information about Genisse’s gender identity or sexual orientation.” Those not paying attention could have fallen for the two “wrong” choices: Genisse is a “cis-gender” (actual) woman, and Genisse identifies as a heterosexual.
Danielle, the Napa psychologist, used the woke activist phrase “sex assigned at birth.” She acknowledged that “learning about sex-assigned-at-birth, gender identity and sexual orientation may be commonplace for some of you and complex and confusing for others.”
“We are grateful that you are willing to learn about these concepts and incorporate them into your work with patients,” she said about the mandatory instruction.
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“Social and Systemic Oppression of the LGBTQ+ Community,” the title of one training module, claimed that a “history of oppression impacts the attitudes of caretakers and quality of care received by LGBTQ+[-identifying] patients today.”
David falsely claimed that “unrelenting stress” due to societal stigma is why LGBT-identifying individuals have more mental health problems – even though homosexuality and transgenderism are overwhelmingly accepted and even celebrated in places like California.
“Stigma arises about LGBTQ people because larger society views them as having deviant erotic behaviors and gender performances,” according to David. “It is imperative that we refrain from jumping to conclusions that erroneously link mental illness with patients’ identities.”
Danielle pointed out that the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders no longer uses the term “gender identity disorder” in reference to transgenderism. But she faulted the DSM for now using the diagnosis of “gender dysphoria,” which is typically required for so-called “gender affirming” procedures.
“Each of the five hospitals within our system have Transgender Treatment Advisory Committees,” David noted, “which exist to consult with treatment providers and administrators about these complex and overlapping identities.”
I have a desk job and no contact with patients at the DSH hospital where I work, suggesting staff indoctrination is one goal of the training. I’m also a practicing Catholic and believe, per the Catechism of the Catholic Church, that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered” and “contrary to the natural law.”
These beliefs, shared by billions of people worldwide, extend to the gamut of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” variations covered by the training. I considered requesting an exemption to the training but concluded there is little upside and lots of potential downside to outing myself as a DEI dissenter amid the state’s current political climate.
In 2008, California voters passed Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment defining marriage as only between a man and a woman. The will of the people was later overturned by the courts, and the state’s moral trajectory has been downhill ever since. Voters are widely expected to remove the nullified Prop 8 language from the state constitution in November.
DSH is one of 12 departments that make up the California Health & Human Services Agency (CalHHS), each with a chief equity officer hired in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd in 2020. Other departments include Aging, Developmental Services, Health Care Services, Public Health, Rehabilitation, and Social Services.
The CalHHS website lists “focus on equity” as the first of its guiding principles because “we cannot allow certain groups and individuals to be disadvantaged because of the color of their skin, gender identity, sexual orientation, age or disability. We will seek to lift all boats, but some boats need to be lifted more.”
The agency’s Equity Strategic Plan will be released this summer, after which each department will be tasked with implementing its own Equity Action Plan. New taxpayer-funded DEI initiatives, along with more LGBTQ training, are coming soon.
Elizabeth Jones is a pseudonym for an employee of the California Department of State Hospitals.