Behind HRC's Corporate Equality Index

As an avowed ally to the LGBT community, I marvel at the amount of change that has engulfed the national landscape just in my lifetime. Though the battle to win hearts and minds rages on, we today have open dialogue with regards to sexual identity in our homes, our workplaces, our churches and our schools, in press and on social media.

But it begs the question: who are the LGBT allies in the corporate world? And by what criteria is a corporation deemed friend?

The Human Rights Campaign, the largest American civil rights organization advocating for the LGBT community, created the Corporate Equality Index (CEI), a scale by which American businesses can be measured as LGBT-friendly. First published in 2002, the original report awarded a mere 13 businesses its highest rating of 100 points. In January 2015, 366 major US businesses (out of 971 profiled) rated 100 CEI points.

Fifteen points are awarded to a company that "prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation," and another fifteen for prohibiting discrimination based on "gender identity or expression." Companies profiled receive fifteen points for offering partner health/medical benefits along with another ten points for partner access to available "soft" benefits (loosely defined as non-monetary compensation offered by a business to its employees that by their nature are difficult to quantify, such as access to timeshares or company cars). Fifteen points are awarded to the company who "positively engages the external LGBT community." The final twenty points are given to companies who have "firm-wide organization competency programs" along with either an "employer-supported employee resource group" or "firm-wide diversity council."

The impact of the HRC's Corporate Equality Index cannot be underestimated. It has served as an objective measurement of not only how LGBT-friendly a profitable and high-profile company is, but also looks at areas for improvement (such as when changes were made to the CEI in 2006 to be more inclusive of transgender persons) and consistency over time. The HRC also breaks down ratings by industry, enabling consumers to see if their dollars are supporting their community, workers to screen prospective employers, and, in the case of health care, for anyone to gauge if a company is truly dedicated to serving the community at large, beyond simply measuring the bottom line.

Here are a few examples of companies who have been surveyed by the HRC:

In the oil and gas industry, Chevron Corporation leads the pack in its LGBT-friendly policies, having scored a perfect 100 CEI points for each of the past ten years. Chevron also carries the unusual distinction having been the first and, thus far, only oil/gas company that has a perfect CEI score; the next highest is Shell Oil, who was awarded 95 points. Based in San Ramon, California, Chevron Corporation's brands are Chevron, Texaco and Caltex.

There are seemingly limitless choices in food, beverages, and groceries, and thankfully, the CEI survey shows that there are myriad companies that score high. Perfect scores have been consistently achieved by Campbell Soup, Safeway, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, General Mills and Kellogg, among several others. It is very notable that 2015 was the first year that Barilla America Inc., of Illinois, was surveyed. As many will recall, the chairman of Barilla came under heavy scrutiny in the fall of 2013 after making what many considered to be anti-gay remarks in an interview. It does seem that Barilla has made amends; they, too, have received a CEI score of 100, achieving each criterion in their company-wide LGBT policies and community actions.

The health care industry continues to boom, with more and more people seeking gainful employment in increasingly available health care jobs. Many health care companies have made excellent strides in their company policies for LGBT employees; CVS Health, Boston Scientific, and Excellus Health Plan raised their CEI scores to 100 from 2014 to 2015. They join numerous health care companies that have consistently received 100s, such as Cardinal Health, CareFusion, Humana, UnitedHealth, and Aetna. Aetna carries a unique distinction, however, having been awarded a perfect 100 by the HRC every year since the inception of the CEI. Aetna is the only health care company surveyed to have done so.

Perhaps, someday, watchdog groups like the Human Rights Campaign will have no purpose in our society, in a time when the world at large sheds all discrimination on the road to enlightenment and peaceful co-existence. Until then, however, the HRC and its tools like the Corporate Equality Index will continue to monitor progress and offer vital information to each individual seeking empowerment and change.