HRC CEI

If you don’t know what those initials stand for well it is the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index which is supposed to measure how much a company supports LGBT employees, well it has been falling short lately. I wrote about the shortfalls  of the CEI twice this year so far (here and here), how they should also take into account the actual experiences of their employees. Case in point,

Ky. man, transgender wife allege threats from Amazon co-workers. What happened next led to lawsuit.
Lexington Herald Leader
 By David Crary AP National Writer
August 9, 2017

A Kentucky man and his transgender wife sued Amazon on Wednesday, alleging that they endured sustained discrimination and harassment during a year as co-workers at the mammoth online retailer’s warehouse in northern Kentucky.

A lawyer working with the couple said the case is notable in part because Amazon, one of the nation’s largest corporations, has a record of strongly supporting gay and transgender rights.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Covington, alleges that Dane Lane and Allegra Schawe-Lane were targeted with threats, slurs and sexual harassment by numerous colleagues at their shipping facility. Their complaints to superiors led to retaliation in some cases, rather than any effective steps to halt the abuse, the couple contends.

At one point, according to the suit, the brake line of their car was severed while parked in a secure lot at the workplace in Hebron

So what is Amazon’s CEI?

It was a whopping 90%!

The article goes on to say…

The fund’s executive director, Jillian Weiss, noted that Amazon has intervened in other court cases in support of transgender rights, and that the company’s Amazon Studios produced the acclaimed television series “Transparent” with a protagonist who transitions from male to female.

“We have a company that touts its transgender friendliness,” Weiss said. “Yet in Kentucky, when a transgender person comes and says, ‘Look, I’m being harassed,' they get no help.”

Instead of just going by a form a company fills out the HRC should also look at the lawsuits that have been filed or complaints by its employees.

People based where they look for jobs on the CEI and the HRC has a responsibility to be as actuate as possible.

The support group that I attend used to have a list of trans friendly businesses which we took down because we could not guaranty to be safe so when a trans person went their they wouldn’t be harassed, the CEI also has that responsibility.