Another Company Joins The Ranks…

…Of companies offering protection to us.

Wal-Mart Joining Corporate Surge to Protect LGBT Employees
Bloomberg
By Jeff Green  and Shannon Pettypiece
December 4, 2016

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. added insurance coverage for transgender workers this year, joining more than 500 companies taking a bigger role in advancing the rights of LGBT employees in a competitive market for labor.

Companies from Apple Inc. to Xerox Corp. are pushing to protect employee rights and improve gender equality as some legislative efforts have stalled. In 28 states, it’s still legal to fire a person for being gay, and President-elect Donald Trump has said he will rescind President Barack Obama’s executive orders, some of which aim at workplace diversity.

"Corporate America has risen to the top in terms of being a high-impact influencer” on LGBT rights, said Deena Fidas, director of the workplace equality project at the Human Rights Campaign, the largest advocacy group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. “We have corporations going on the record at the federal level, at the judicial level and certainly at the state level speaking out against what we would call anti-LGBT bills.”

The thing to remember is that in today’s political environment companies probably will not have to cover us so this is an important step forward for us.

As much as I dislike the HRC I have to admit that their Corporate Equality Index has caused companies to include insurance coverage for us.

 The Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, an annual list that indicates how companies are doing on LGBT-friendly policies, will be released this week. Wal-Mart was among a total of 517 companies, the most ever, that earned a perfect score of 100 points, the group said, up from 407 last year. Wal-Mart, which scored 90 points the last two years, has moved up from 40 points in 2011.

Let’s hope that this trend continues in the Trump administration.