Temple City Officials Consider Hiring Radical ‘Diversity Consulting Firm’ to ‘Survey Employees’

In the Central Texas town of Temple, taxpayers may soon be forced to pay a Chicago company to come survey and potentially instruct city employees to promote hazardous sexual behaviors, racial prejudice, and “transgenderism.”

The Nova Collective is a self-titled “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” consulting firm whose mission is to “make the world a more inclusive place by helping organizations build and sustain DEI programs with real impact.” However, that vague statement quickly clears with a look at their actual beliefs and teachings: evaluate employees based on the color of their skin, and celebrate LGBT sexual conduct, killing a child in the womb, and “transgenderism”—the idea you can turn into whatever biological sex or creature you feel like.

“A person’s gender identity is their concept of self as male, female, both or neither,” reads one of their blog posts on rewiring “gender language.” They list possible options of “omnigender, polygender, pangender, genderfluid, transgender” and others with pronouns of “Ze, Zim, Zira, Zirself, Xe, Xem Xyr, Xemself.”

“To continue your own education – continue to use [Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation] as a resource, and follow nonbinary and/or gender non-confirming thought leaders,” they add.

“Make this the month you push on the bathrooms,” the organization wrote in another post, referencing the issue of LGBT activists wanting to allow men in women’s public restrooms and private facilities. “32% of trans employees don’t eat or drink at work so that they don’t have to deal with navigating binary restrooms.”

Nova Collective’s social media posts go even further.

“‘To me…Pride is Black trans people throwing bricks through police stations and setting sh*t on fire.’ – @sheabuttagawddess,” the organization wrote for LGBT “Pride” month.

“The U.S. Supreme Court reversal of Roe v. Wade goes far beyond ‘women’s rights’. This impacts any person who can get pregnant,” the organization recently posted. “Abortion is healthcare, and healthcare is a human right. Nova will continue to provide and support our employees with safe access to legal abortions by covering necessary travel, lodging and medical fees.”

Nova also has posts celebrating drag queens—adult male entertainers who dress as scantily-clad women and perform sexual dances, an especially contentious topic in Texas after multiple gay bars and restaurants recently began hosting “family-friendly” shows for kids. Schools across the state have also begun incorporating the cross-dressers for classroom activities.

The city of Temple’s “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Commission” may next month recommend a $112,000 contract with Nova just for an initial survey of city employees, which will, according to Mayor Tim Davis, “[provide] an understanding of where they stand regarding the DEI concepts, so the city can then use that information to possibly put together training programs” for staff.

Temple residents recently showed up to a city council meeting to protest spending taxpayer money on the company.

“It’s just an inroad to get into our city to create problems and create division, not unity,” said citizen David Newsome. “My question is, where did the idea of this commission come from in the first place? What made you think that we need [such an organization] that, if you look at their website and what’s on Facebook, all it does is promote perversion.”

“I attended the first three meetings of the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Commission, and I decided to go back in June and attend another meeting. And I was quite shocked to discover that no one was able to define what diversity, equity or inclusion was,” added Carole Owen.

“The DEI Commission by its very structure defies its name. It excludes certain segments of our population (i.e., white heterosexual males) while including those it deems worthy to include,” wrote Nell Brindley in a local news commentary article. “It is not diverse, equitable or inclusive. Sadly, it divides us even more and fails to bring about the unity that all rational people desire.”

Temple’s DEI Commission is scheduled to again meet, and potentially recommend the contract, on August 2.

Jacob Asmussen

Jacob Asmussen is a Senior Journalist for Texas Scorecard. He attended the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and in 2017 earned a double major in public relations and piano performance.