Cole, 21, has emerged as a vocal detransitioner after undergoing a transgender-related hormones and undergoing a sex change as a teen.
Drawing from her own experience, which she often calls traumatic and life-changing, Cole appeared via video last week at Home Depot’s virtual annual shareholders meeting. In the three-minute video, she urges the corporation to end the controversial medical policy because it harms Home Depot’s reputation among millions of homeowners.
“It’s that legacy,” Cole states, “that makes it imperative to act now before the name ‘Home Depot’ is permanently attached to the sterilization and mutilation of children.”
Cole also discloses she learned of Home Depot’s policy through Human Rights Campaign. That homosexual lobbying organization is known for targeting major corporations with its “Corporate Equality Index” that demands pro-LGBT policies in order to be “inclusive” and “equitable,” and avoid labels such as “homophobic” and “transphobic.”
On the HRC website, The Home Depot has a corporate score of 45 out of 100. The policy mentioned by Cole would likely fall under “Inclusive Benefits,” which HRC says measures “equitable access to comprehensive healthcare and family-related benefits.”
Home Depot, which is headquartered in Atlanta, did not dispute Cole’s accusation when it was asked about the claim by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. A spokesman told the Chronicle the corporation offers “comprehensive benefits” to its employees for medical, dental, and vision.
Despite the controversy over its medical policy, Home Depot told the Chronicle it has not participated or cooperated with the Human Rights Campaign since 2021. The ratings score on the HRC website comes from the lobbying group’s own efforts, the corporation said.
Discussing her confrontation on the “Washington Watch” program, Cole said she has not heard from Home Depot executives, but she has heard from shareholders and shoppers. They were shocked, she said, to learn that policy is allowed at a corporation that has become a household name.
“It's a place where the company is well loved by conservatives all across the nation,” Cole said, “who are building their own homes, building their own families."
If a transgender-related policy like that exists, Cole reasoned, most people assume it is only for adults.
“It wasn't until the actual faces of people, who have been harmed by this, especially younger and younger, have shown the real lifelong consequences of this,” Cole said. “People began to step back and think what has been going on, for so long, underneath our noses.”
Among transgender advocates, what Cole describes as body-altering hormones and body-chopping surgeries – like her own double mastectomy – is commonly referred to as “gender-affirming care.”
