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Wondering how well your workplace fares when it comes to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality? According to two reports by the
Human Rights Campaign (HRC), chances are that your workplace has become a lot more inclusive in recent years, especially when it comes to employment benefits and transgender rights.
Improvements Are WidespreadThe top-rated companies in the HRC 2007
Best Places to Work for GLBT Equality survey come not only from traditionally gay-friendly sectors like financial services, entertainment, department stores and computer software, but also from more conservative industries such as aerospace, automotive, oil and gas -- even defense contractors.
Once more, the HRC’s newly released
State of the Workplace for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Americans 2006-2007 shows the number of Fortune 500 companies that ban workplace discrimination for transgender Americans has risen 60 percent since January 2006 and quadrupled since 2003.
That report also points to steady growth in the number of Fortune 500 companies offering domestic partner benefits over the last year. Since last year’s report, 17 more companies have added benefits to same-sex domestic partners, bringing the total to 53 percent of Fortune 500 companies, says the HRC.
Dramatic Improvements, Especially in Transgender RightsWhile it's still illegal to be an openly gay United States military man or woman, virtually every other sector of society is hiring homosexuals. In fact, in just half a decade, the workplace environment has changed dramatically, according to the HRC.
In 2002, when the HRC first surveyed employers to determine the best places for gay and lesbian employees to work, only 13 scored a top score of 100 on the Corporate Equality Index Score. By contrast, the 2007 Best Places to Work survey lists 142 companies -- a tenfold increase. In fact, the number of companies receiving a score of 100 in the Best Places to Work survey almost doubled from the previous year. This is particularly significant, because while companies are still rated on their domestic partner benefits and antidiscrimination policies, they’re also being assessed on broader measures, including their commitment to transgender issues.
Since January 2006, the number of Fortune 500 companies that include gender identity in their nondiscrimination policies went from 78 to 125, according to the State of the Workplace report. In 2003, only eight companies had such policies.
“Gender identity” is an important phrase, because it covers transgender workers as well as gays, lesbians and bisexuals, explains Eric Bloem, associate director of HRC’s Workplace Project.
Transgender issues represent new terrain for most businesses. “They realize they need to focus on them, but they don’t always know how,” says Bloem. “We say, ‘Do you have gender transition guidelines for employees? Do you have them for supervisors too?’ We provide sample guidelines on our Web site, which they can adapt and modify to fit their needs.”
What to Expect Ahead In the future, HRC may examine supplier diversity, as well as companies’ global GLBT policies and practices. The current surveys only look at US workplaces.
And HRC still needs a way to assess workplace climate. “A good score does not always correlate with every GLBT employee feeling comfortable,” Bloem admits. “We’re working on providing resources to make sure that words translate into actions everywhere, from the top of a company on down.”
