SHRM has taken controversial stances on several issues in recent years. Now, in a move that’s angered many HR and DEI professionals, the organization announced it will welcome conservative extremist, conspiracy theorist, and anti-DEI, anti-LGBTQ+ activist Robby Starbuck to speak on the main stage of its inclusion conference, Blueprint, in October.

Catch up. SHRM hosted its first DEI conference nearly 30 years ago. Originally called the Workplace Diversity Conference, it was rebranded (again) in July to seemingly distance itself from its DEI roots, HR Brew previously reported.

DEI leaders have since shared their concerns about the rebrand online, including worries that SHRM is erasing the work that the conference was built on.

Now that Starbuck is set to take the main stage for a DEI debate with media personality and former political strategist Van Jones, many DEI practitioners feel that SHRM has lost the plot……………