On Sept. 19, the Human Rights Campaign ( HRC ) released a report that showed that a record number of the largest U.S. companies are increasingly competing to expand benefits and protections for their LGBT employees and consumers. According to HRC's fifth annual Corporate Equality Index, 138 major American companies earned the top rating of 100 percent, up from 101 in 2005. ( Among the local corporations that scored 100 are Starcom MediaVest Group, Boeing Co., Hewitt Associates, Kraft Foods and McDermott Will & Emery LLP. )
Windy City Times talked with Joe Solmonese, HRC's national president, and HRC Workplace Project Director Daryl Herrschaft about the index as well as the recent Out & Equal Workplace Summit, at which Solmonese spoke.
Windy City Times: Before I left a media briefing [ connected with Out & Equal ] , we were talking about gender identity and even sexual-reassignment surgery being connected with the index. How long have they been a part of it?
Daryl Herrschaft: Gender identity, as a category in the non-discrimination policy, has been included in the index from the beginning. What we found was that a lot of companies were adding that in their policy without a really good sense of what that meant. So we've raised the bar with companies, and one area of that [ concerns ] transgender employees. Now, we're trying to educate companies about what it means to have gender identity in their EEO policies.
WCT: So what do these results mean to you? More companies than ever have scored 100 on the index.
Joe Solmonese: It's almost historic to get the kind of numbers we've [ gotten ] . What it says is that the message is that having an open and inclusive environment is good for business. It really says that the message has gained resonance.
DH: When we started in 2002, there were 13 companies that scored 100; now there are 138—and the standards have gone up. It's not that there are more companies are scoring 100 despite the fact that standards have gone up but that they've done it because the standards have gone up. They use the index as a roadmap to define their workplace policies.
JS: There were certainly very thoughtful conversations about raising the bar. What's great about Daryl and his team is that they were thoughtful about the degree about how you raise the bar. However, you can't raise the bar without doing what we've done, which is to show them the roadmap to get to that [ level ] .
WCT: How have you shown them?
DH: Around transgender employees [ for example ] , it's one thing to say you don't discriminate. However, it's another to really take care of them. We provide answers about [ issues ] such as restroom access and identification badge changes. We provide real-life tools and sample policies for companies to use.
WCT: There were three companies that scored zero [ ExxonMobil, grocery chain Meijer and high-tech consulting firm Perot Systems, the last of which is owned by Ross Perot ] . What's being done about those companies?
DH: With ExxonMobil, we've been sponsoring a coalition that's been asking them to change their policies for the past five or six years. I was actually at a shareholder meeting earlier this year to propose a resolution.
We've [ also ] made repeated attempts to reach out to Meijer and Perot Systems. Actually, in the '90s, [ former HRC President ] Elizabeth Birch talked with Ross Perot. After he got off the campaign trail, he went back and did away with domestic-partner benefits.
We think that by making this information available, competitive forces will compel these companies to move. Every company that we've given a zero to on the index has improved its score.
JS: What I think is interesting is that in the early days, there was a small handful of companies that you could look to. Now, there's a very small handful with [ a score of ] zero. I was thinking about a woman with Raytheon who talked about a 'bad' company [ with the defense industry ] with a score of 86; I said, 'Listen to yourself.' [ Laughs. ]
WCT: What is the trend with SMEs [ small to medium-sized enterprises ] ?
DH: The representative data that we've looked at [ shows ] that they are not moving as fast as larger corporations. That's probably for a lot of reasons; I don't think it's necessarily a gay issue. Like any small business, they have trouble getting health insurance in the first place. [ Also, ] they don't necessarily have diversity departments; they're concerned with making widgets.
WCT: What did you want to add about this index?
JS: If you look broadly at the movement, there is no more important and effective place to shift opinion than the American workplace; it's the largest captive audience we have on any given day.
DH: Corporations have stepped up the pace about making changes. They have a much broader understanding of what it's like to be gay in America.
WCT: Shifting things slightly, what did you talk about at the summit?
JS: There was a panel [ 'Workplace Equality as a National LGBT Movement' ] . The questions [ centered ] around where we are going and how LGBT employees can play a role in advancing that agenda.
WCT: What do you feel are the immediate challenges that LGBT employees face?
JS: My observation is that it's kind of a triangulated effort. There's corporate leadership, which involves being more tolerant and that have an inclusive workforce is good for business. There's the LGBT workforce, which is an embodiment of why [ inclusiveness ] is a good idea. And, there are groups like HRC, which are providing roadmaps or networking one business with another.
There is no end to what LGBT employees can do to enhance what is already happening. Whether it's re-dedicating themselves or being resources to those who want to be out in the workplace or being conversant about what's going on, something can be done.
WCT: Do you think the 'good ol' boy' way of thinking is still pretty pervasive and is maybe inhibiting some LGBT employees from trying to ascend the corporate ladder?
JS: I don't think it's so much the 'good ol' boy' network but maybe dry subject matter. I think our challenge is to put it in the terms we put it in. Corporate America is our own sort of petri dish. When you talk about corporate policy and shareholder resolutions, one's eyes can glaze over.
WCT: Do you think any sort of adjustments are needed for minority-owned businesses, since Black and Latino communities are known for being pretty conservative?
DH: I think that, for most of these companies, green is the color that matters most. It is a testament to progressive policies that companies are seeking LGBT-owned businesses, like when they seek out women- and minority-owned businesses. Companies that aren't treating gay and lesbian companies fairly are very quickly becoming the minority.
To your other point, it would be helpful to have vocal leadership from out CEOs and executives so that people who are lower down on the totem poles can feel welcome.
See www.hrc.org for more info.
