Trump’s return to office for the second time has seen a fresh series of attacks aimed at dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programmes in the US – and there’s no one more eager to take DEI down than Robby Starbuck.
Robby Starbuck is a former Hollywood music video director who has faced criticism for his robust opposition to DEI, Pride, and other examples of so-called “woke leftism.” He also helmed the vehemently anti-LGBTQ+ documentary, The War on Children.
Starbuck is one of the most significant figures behind the burgeoning anti DEI movement in the US and has claimed responsibility for many brands recently scaling back their diversity and inclusion policies.
But who is he? Where did he come from? And what does he have against DEI? Let’s dive in.
What did Robby Starbuck do before becoming an activist?
Not much is known about Starbuck’s early life, other than the fact he was raised Catholic. His mother and grandparents are believed to have fled Cuba during the 60s and emigrated to the United States.
Previously living in California, he moved to Tennessee in 2019 to begin investing in real estate and the stock market, claiming that he received pushback in Hollywood for identifying as Republican, being outspoken about his views on social media, and endorsing Donald Trump.
His activism didn’t begin with DEI. He previously campaigned against mask and vaccine mandates during the Covid-19 pandemic and declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination to represent Tennessee’s 5th congressional district in 2021.
Starbuck also accused actress Megan Fox of child abuse for apparently “forcing” her children to wear girls’ clothes in a post on social media, which has since been deleted.
The post used a copyrighted photo of Fox, leading to a photo agency issuing a legal agency to Starbuck and Fox responding with: “Exploiting my child’s gender identity to gain attention in your political campaign has put you on the wrong side of the universe.”
When did Robby Starbuck begin campaigning against DEI?
While it might seem like Starbuck has been loud and proud about his anger towards DEI for ages, it was only in June 2024 that he started campaigning against companies that were already unpopular with conservatives because of their support for marginalised groups.
Using his existing audience and reach, Starbuck began pressuring companies like John Deere, Tractor Supply, Ford, Harley-Davidson, Jack Daniels, and many more, to drop their diversity programmes.
Since his crusade began, several of those brands succumbed to the pressure and publicly announced the abandonment of their DEI initiatives.
“We’re now forcing multi-billion-dollar organisations to change their policies without even posting, just from fear they have of being the next company we expose,” he said on X/Twitter after home-improvement retail chain Lowe’s shared an internal memo about its decision.
“So far, you’ve helped me change corporate policy at Tractor Supply, John Deere, Harley-Davidson, Polaris, Indian Motorcycle and now Lowe’s. We are a force to be reckoned with,” Starbuck said.
Starbuck has claimed direct credit for many big brands’ retracting their DEI policies, while The New York Times reported that “Robby Starbuck may have scored his biggest win” to date with his successful pressure campaign against Walmart.” The corporate giant rolled back its DEI initiatives in November.
Despite this, it is unclear how much of an effect he personally had, as a review by CNN showed that many of the companies were already in the process of re-examining their policies and only made “performative tweaks” in the wake of Starbuck’s pressure.
In fact, Ford retained several of its DEI policies, while the changes made at John Deere were not as widespread as Starbuck initially suggested. Also, Walmart has continued to focus on expanding opportunities for underrepresented groups despite the change in policy.
What is Starbuck’s documentary The War on Children?
In addition to being against DEI initiatives, Starbuck has also been vocal in his crusade against trans people, drag queens and gender-affirming care.
He created a documentary, featuring interviews with anti-trans swimmer and pundit Riley Gaines, Chaya Raichik of Libs of TikTok fame, and US Senator Rand Paul, among others.
Titled The War on Children, the film’s website states that it aims to expose “the WAR that is being waged on children today through gender ideology, environmental, social, and governance (ESG), critical race theory (CRT), sexualisation of entertainment, sex trafficking, online exploitation, TikTok, Big Pharma, and more.
The documentary has been described as being “anti-trans” and “anti-LGBTQ+” as well as peddling misinformation, such as the conspiracy theory that toxic chemicals are responsible for children identifying as LGBTQ+.
The film has been recommended online by Elon Musk, who is also anti-trans.
Today we make history on @X by premiering our film "The War On Children" here. Watch the trailer and then help us prove filmmakers don’t need woke studios to succeed by subscribing to watch the full film.
What’s the film about?
There’s a war on our children right now. Far… pic.twitter.com/OmpObXuVNF
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) February 2, 2024
Starbuck previously claimed that Amazon banned the controversial documentary from its streaming platform because it contained “offensive content”.
In a post on X, Starbuck wrote: ““Is [Amazon founder] Jeff Bezos afraid of people hearing our very mainstream viewpoint shared by half the country or have radicals hijacked his company?”
He alleged that the ban was due to Amazon “covering the dangers of sex changes for kids and the dangerous role our government has played in this social contagion”.
Our documentary ‘The War On Children’ is the most watched documentary of the year with more than 50 million views but @amazon just BANNED it from @PrimeVideo due to "offensive content."
Is @JeffBezos afraid of people hearing our very mainstream viewpoint shared by half the… pic.twitter.com/YgRIgDmyZ6
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) August 21, 2024
The film has been subject to a lot of controversy, with several participants claiming that Starbuck was not clear with them about the direction of the narrative in addition to its anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-trans rhetoric.
One drag queen said she was tricked into taking part, allegedly being asked by Starbuck originally to do an interview on how the lives and mental health of LGBTQ+ people were being affected by bans and restrictions on gender-affirming care.
But Starbuck claims that he did nothing and that the “left-wing media” is “more interested in writing a negative story about some subjects we asked to interview being upset than to examine the war on children that we exposed in our film.”
What’s next for Robby Starbuck? Well, with Trump in post, he has a president who entirely shares his values. Today, Donald Trump signed an executive order eliminating DEI from US military. He’s also ordered that all government DEI employees must be put on paid administrative leave, the White House has confirmed.
Trump has also vowed to end birthright citizenship, the automatic American citizenship that is granted to anyone born in the country, which could affect people, who like Starbuck, have foreign-born parents. The phrase “leopards ate my face” springs to mind.
The post Robby Starbuck is the face of the anti-DEI movement in the US: What’s his story? appeared first on PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBTQ+ news.
