WOKENESS EXPOSED: Cracker Barrel has undergone major evolution on internal LGBT policies

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From Fox Business: Cracker Barrel over the past decade has worked closely with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), changing its company culture to be more inclusive and LGBT-friendly ahead of its controversial store rebrand.

The restaurant chain’s former management and training leader, Steve Smotherman, who spearheaded an LGBT employee resource group at Cracker Barrel, went on to sit on the HRC’s Business Advisory Council, Upward News reported.

“For more than ten years of my time at Cracker Barrel, I had an emphasis on Diversity & Inclusion, especially with LGBTQ workplace inclusion. My training background allowed me to understand the steps of adult learning, facilitate difficult conversations and be effective at it [sic] Diversity & Inclusion content,” Smotherman, who joined the company in 2005, wrote.

Cracker Barrel told Fox News Digital that it “has not participated in the Human Rights Campaign Index or had any affiliation with HRC in several years.”

According to the report, Smotherman set up an LGBT resource group that originally had six members. He touted the group’s success at changing Cracker Barrel’s culture and making the “Old Country Store” more welcoming toward LGBT employees. He left the company in 2020, and ended up with a seat on the HRC Business Advisory Council.

The HRC set up a score system to rate corporations on how ‘inclusive’ they were to gay employees. Cracker Barrel was first given a score of ‘zero,’ but later upped their HRC score to 80 in 2021 after making several LGBTQ-friendly moves.

Conservative filmmaker and commentator Robby Starbuck has been blowing the lid off Cracker Barrel’s pro-LGBTQ status.

“Oh my goodness. When you see what we’ve got on Cracker Barrel… Wow. I don’t think anyone knew it was as bad as the stuff we received. We’re talking total capture by leftism at the exec level. We have photos, videos, etc.,” Starbuck wrote.

He posted a screenshot of a previous announcement on Cracker Barrel’s website, which reads, “This year Cracker Barrel’s focus was to be a part of the Pride experience… In the Cracker Barrel spirit of hospitality and belonging, we call it ‘bringing the front porch to Pride’.”

Another screenshot reveals that Cracker Barrel was a sponsor of a “Nashville Pride” event in 2024.

Journalist Chris Rufo wrote Thursday, “Alright, I’m hearing chatter from behind the scenes about the Cracker Barrel campaign and, on second thought: we must break the Barrel. It’s not about this particular restaurant chain—who cares—but about creating massive pressure against companies that are considering any move that might appear to be “wokification.” The implicit promise: Go woke, watch your stock price drop 20 percent, which is exactly what is happening now. I was wrong. The Barrel must be broken.”

“Absolutely correct. Time to break the Barrel. What I have coming tomorrow is explosive stuff,” Starbuck replied.

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