For years, corporate America has fallen all over itself to be applauded by activists like the Human Rights Campaign, falsely believing HRC’s approval meant they were doing something right and good for business. This year, hundreds of companies, realizing they’ve been led astray, marched the other way.
Participation in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI) was once treated as all but mandatory for Fortune 500 companies. But 2026 marks a cataclysmic collapse for that assumption.
In 2026, HRC saw a dramatic 65 percent drop in Fortune 500 CEI participation from 2025. And the number of companies achieving the “perfect” 100 score dropped approximately 30 percent from roughly 750 to 534. That’s not a rounding error. It’s a rapid retreat. And it’s overdue. But why such a dramatic shift? Why now?
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