LGBT: Corporate America & LGBT rights

As we keep hearing about conservative organizations that boycott LGBT-friendly businesses, it was nice to stumble along this report about corporate America from the Human Rights Campagin suggesting that coverage for LGBT employees continues to steadily improve.

A few facts of interest (both good and bad) mentioned in the report:

1.By the end of 2004, 82% of Fortune 500 employers included sexual orientation in their non-discrimination policy. The higher a company was on the Fortune 500, the more likely sexual orientation was to be included. 51 of Fortune 500 companies had clauses protecting employees from being discriminated against based on gender identity. This was almost a doubling from 2003, when only 27 of Fortune 500 companies protected employees based on gender identity.

2. 49 of the top 50 4 year colleges have non-discrimination clauses including sexual orientation (Notre Dame is the only of the top 50 that doesn't).

3. Unfortunately, there is still no federal law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. As of March 2005, 11 States prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in the Public sector only (ie. Protect lesbian, gay, and bisexual workers from being fired simply because they are LGB): Alaska (2002), Arizona (2003), Colorado (2003), Delaware (2001), Indiana (2001), Kentucky (2003), Louisiana (2004), Michigan (2003), Montana (2000), Pennsylvania (2003), Washington (1993). 16 States have non-discrimination policies for LGB individuals in both the public and the private sectors: California (1992), Connecticut (1991), Hawaii (1991), Illinois (2005), Maine (2005), Maryland (2001), Massachusetts (1989), Minnesota (1993), Nevada (1999), New Hampshire (1997), New Jersey (1992), New Mexico (2003), New York (2002), Rhode Island (1995), Vermont (1992), Wisconsin (1982). Currently, only 6 states (Minnesota, California, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Illinois, & Maine) as well as the District of Columbia have laws prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity that extend to private employment. Both Kentucky and Pennsylvania prohibit gender identity discrimination in the workplace in the public sector only.

4. By April 13th, 2005, 83 of the Fortune 500 offered same sex domestic partners equal benefits offer to employees’ heterosexual spouses in the following areas: (bereavement leave, medical leave, COBRA, supplemental life insurance, relocation assistance, adoption assistance, retiree medical coverage, employer provided life insurance, and automatic pension benefits for a partner in the case of an employees’ death. Unfortunately, vague language in anti-same-sex marriage amendments (such as the one in Michigan), are making it a tenuous situation at best for more employers—particularly those in the public sector—to extend benefits to same-sex partners.