“T-Mobile disconnects from DEI under pressure from Trump administration” (USA Today):
T-Mobile is scrapping its diversity, equity and inclusion programs under pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration as it looks for regulators to green-light two major acquisitions.
In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission dated July 8, the wireless carrier said it would discontinue DEI policies “not just in name, but in substance.”
“We recognize that the legal and policy landscape surrounding DEI under federal law has changed,” T-Mobile wrote.
Here’s the correct analysis, I think:
“In yet another cynical bid to win FCC regulatory approval, T-Mobile is making a mockery of its professed commitment to eliminating discrimination, promoting fairness and amplifying underrepresented voices,” FCC commissioner Anna Gomez, a Democrat, wrote on X. “History will not be kind to this cowardly corporate capitulation.”
How is it possible for a company to abandon one of its sacred principles without at least pretending to have changed its mind, e.g., saying “What we did in the past was wrong”? It’s okay to say “We thought we could make more money by adopting a completely new moral system”?
In a similar vein… “Trump administration releases $175 million in federal funding to Penn after transgender athletes agreement” (CNN):
The funding release comes after the school reached an agreement with the federal government to block transgender athletes from female sports teams and erase the records set by swimmer Lia Thomas.
The university previously said “Lia Thomas is a woman”. If the Feds had threatened to take away $1 the school presumably would have continued to say “Lia Thomas is a woman”. There was some amount of money, however, at which Lia Thomas’s gender ID changed. But what was that amount of money? Would Penn have been willing to say “Lia Thomas is not a woman” for $1 million? $5 million?
Excellent observation!
“Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.”
Groucho Marx
Yes, yes. We’ve already established what they are; now we’re just haggling over price.
Competitive swimmers undergo drug testing and can be fined or banned if they fail. So why isn’t Lia Thomas banned for taking estrogen and anti-androgens as part of hormone replacement therapy?
I would like to see a cisgender woman take performance-enhancing drugs and then challenge the NCAA if she gets banned. It would raise serious questions about consistency in how the rules are applied.