Lake County Gazette

Some of the most prominent American companies remain affiliated with The GenderCool Project—an organization that promotes introducing children as young as five to “educational” materials on being transgender and "non-binary"—following public fallout after a whistleblower at State Farm prompted the end of the partnership between the insurance giant and controversial organization. 

GenderCool, which bills itself as a "youth-led movement bringing positive change to the world," even went so far as to convince one of the nation’s largest insurance carriers, State Farm, to solicit its Florida agents to donate a “three book bundle to their local teacher, community centers or their library of choice,” according to a leaked January 2022 internal email penned by an employee of State Farm. 

According to GenderCool's website, its "Champions"—trans-gender youth spokespeople—among several evangelical activities, author books that "help grownups and the kids in their lives understand that transgender and non-binary youth are just like all other kids." One of the titles, "A Kids Book About" was recognized as one of Oprah Winfrey's "Favorite Things" in 2020. 

“The project’s goal is to increase representation of LGBTQ+ books and support our communities in having challenging, important and empowering conversations with children age 5+,” the leaked State Farm email said. 

The email instructed participating Florida agents to "receive" "The GenderCool Collection"—a three book bundle of their titles, which they would then donate to a "local teacher, library or community center" in the state. It also instructed agents to share about the "donation" on social media. 

But in May of this year, State Farm announced the end of its affiliation with GenderCool after a backlash ignited by a blistering online campaign, entitled Like a Creepy Neighbor…, produced by the non-profit Consumers’ Research, which received the internal State Farm email from a whistleblower.

“State Farm tells us they’re a good neighbor but would a good neighbor target five-year-olds with a conversation about their sexual identity,” a 30-second video embedded in the campaign begins.

"State Farm's support of a philanthropic program, GenderCool, has been the subject of news and customer inquiries," the company said in a May statement. "Conversations about gender and identity should happen at home with parents. We don't support required curriculum in schools on this topic. We support organizations providing resources for parents to have these conversations."

According to Consumers Research website, the partnership ended "after nearly six-months of State Farm delivering books about being transgender and non-binary to elementary schools, libraries and community centers."

Spokesman for Consumers’ Research, Beau Brunson, told Lake County Gazette that they had no immediate plans to target other companies affiliated with GenderCool, but would if additional whistleblowers stepped forward.

“We had a mountain of evidence dumped on us by the State Farm whistleblower,” he said.

He added that they were pleased that the story was still generating interest because it could prompt others to come forward.

In another example, Nike supports the GenderCool program Play It Out, which the GenderCool website characterizes as “an education campaign to help people understand fact from fiction about transgender kids and their connection to athletics and sports. There is an enormous amount of misinformation in the country right now around the rightful, legal place of transgender and non-binary kids in athletics.”

An analysis of corporate partnerships with GenderCool reveals that the group, based on "investment" levels by partners, ranging from $35,000 to $5,000 annually, offers services in six areas, including: Speaking engagement "Events" led by transgender youth "Champions"; "Reverse Mentorship Program" to offer "additional opportunities for personal growth and development"; “DEI/HR consulting” on “evolving language used in talent acquisition and retention programming,” and “providing input and guidance on best ways to evolve benefits for transgender employees and parent employees of transgender and non-binary children”; "Public Engagements" to "create external content that celebrates that progress"; "Concierge Support for Parent Employees of Transgender and Non-Binary Children" to offer “one-on-one support” on several topics including “inclusive school policy” and “affirming healthcare partners”; and "Multilingual Speaking Engagements" to "embrace the cultural differences surrounding this incredibly important conversation." 

For instance, "Platinum" level partners receive up to 20 hours of “curated support for employee parents of trans and non-binary children.” This includes prepared materials as well as virtual meetings. This counseling includes topics like “medical” support, “navigating through anti-trans youth legislation,” as well as name change and document change support. 

Lake County Gazette has reached out to all companies partnered with GenderCool, according to the organization's website, for comment about their affiliations—asking specifically if they were reconsidering in light of State Farm's recent withdrawal. Those companies include Dell, Amazon and Allstate. Allstate was asked if the company requested that their agents donate books on being transgender and non-binary that targeted kids. No companies have responded to inquires. 

Gazette also reached out to GenderCool via a media contact form available on their website, asking if they had requested Allstate, or other firms, to initiate a campaign similar to State Farm’s. No one responded.

The following breakdown includes the companies partnered with GenderCool and their tier level. 

Titanium Partners 

Dell Technologies, Gap Inc.,Gap, Banana Republic 

Platinum Partner

Amazon

Gold Partners

Experian, UKG 

Silver Partners

Accenture, Coup, Electronic Arts, Solvay, VMware, F5 

Bronze Partners

BMO, Enbridge

Copper Partner

William Blair

"Supporters" include:

Nike, HP, PG&E, Out & Equal, Intuit, Splunk, Allstate Foundation, Gill Foundation, Moss Adams, Lilly, KPMG, CGI, HSBC, GLASSDOOR, Pfizer, Catalent

GenderCool is headquartered in Highland Park, IL. According to its website, the organization was founded in 2017 by Jennifer and Jonathan Grosshandler, the parents of four children, one of whom identifies as transgender, along with Jennifer's “friend and mentor” Gearah Goldstein, who is an "expert on diversity and inclusion, wife, parent, and proud transgender person." In addition to the Grosshandlers and Goldstein, GenderCool is comprised of "five extraordinary young people and their families."