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GLV Reports & Communications, New York today announced the release of its 1999 listing of leading businesses for gay and lesbian Americans. Known as the GLV (Gay & Lesbian Values) Index of
better companies, the annual report is released each June during the nation's gay pride season. It is regarded widely by institutional investors, money managers, non-profit groups and human rights advocates as an invaluable social barometer of the nation's corporate sector and how it is
progressing on workplace and marketplace policy issues in relation to sexual orientation.
The GLV Index also provides an important reference tool for gay and
lesbian consumers, employees and investors who are looking to advance more
progressive policies in their own companies, with the employers they
work for, or through their personal spending and investing habits.
Grant Lukenbill, who has been compiling the GLV Index since 1995
said "This is a listing that all self-respecting Americans --both gay and
straight --can take pride in. It is an accounting of progress, not perfection.
It represents decent, forward-thinking companies that have made important
changes and signaled that they intend to do more. Each of the companies
included on this year's index have their own unique areas of strength as
well as some shortcomings. Our goal is to affirm the strengths, to applaud
the efforts these important institutions are make toward being socially
responsible American businesses, and frankly, to give their competitors
something to think about."
Commenting on the release of this year's report in Washington,
D.C., Kim Mills, Education Director at Human Rights Campaign (HRC) said
"Corporate America is making progress when it comes to proving that it values gay
and lesbian employees and consumers, but we still have a long way to go. The
companies that make the GLV Index are in the vanguard, and the companies
that don't make the list are on notice that they should do better."
The GLV Index takes into consideration the policies of the nation's most
influential companies across twelve different major industrial sectors
using a detailed ten point scale (see below). Companies can determine their
ranking by comparing their internal communications, workplace and
benefits policies to the attached chart.
Companies included on the 1999 GLV Index (also listed below) score 7.0
or better on the GLV Rating Scale. Many are also abiding by at least six of
the eight equality principles on sexual orientation as determined by the The
Equality Project (equalityproject.org), an independent organizing group
of gay and lesbian consumers, employees and investors headquartered in New
York.
Key highlights of this year's GLV Index include the addition of
McDonalds Restaurants for their official inclusion of a written nondiscrimination
policy statement on sexual orientation this past April; The Mayo Clinic,
for extending domestic partner healthcare benefits to employees effective
Jan 1 2000; and to The Limited Inc., for extending adoption benefits as well
as domestic partner benefits to gay and lesbian employees at all stores
this past April including its Intimate Brands division which owns Victoria's
Secret.
Noting important work that still needs to be done, Grant Lukenbill, the
report's author said "In the coming days I hope we'll soon see the
airlines and the automotive companies choosing do the right thing by implementing
domestic partner health care insurance for their employees. The airlines
and the automotive manufacturers have stalled far too long on this issue. ."
The 1999 Gay & Lesbian Values Index of Leading Companies
- Abercrombie & Fitch
- Adobe Software
- Adolph Coors
- Advanced Micro Devices
- Aetna
- America Online
- American Airlines
- American Express
- American President Lines
- Amgen
- Apple Computer
- Aspect
- AT&T
- Autodesk
- Bank of America/NationsBank
- BankBoston/Fleet Bank
- Barnes and Noble
- Bayer
- Bell Atlantic
- Ben & Jerry
- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mass
- Borland International
- Bristol-Myers Squibb
- Calvert Group
- Cambridge Technology Group
- Celestial Seasonings
- Charles Schwab & Company
- Chevron
- Cisco Systems
- Donna Karan
- E Trade
- Eastman Kodak
- Federal National Mortgage
- Foote Cone & Belding
- Ford Motor Company
- Gannett Co.
- Gay Financial Network
- Gap, Inc.
- General Mills
- Genetech
- Gilead Sciences
- Glaxo Wellcome
- Herman Miller
- Hewlett Packard
- Hill & Knowlton Public Relations
- Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos
- IBM
- IKEA
- Illinois Tool Works
- Informix Software
- Intel, Inc.
- Joseph E. Seagram & Sons
- Kaiser Permanente
- Kinder Lydenberg & Domini
- KPMG Peatmarwick
- Levi Strauss & Co.
- Lillian Vernon
- Liz Claiborne
- Lucent Technologies
- Mattel
- Meyers Pride Value Fund
- Microsoft
- McDonalds Restaurants
- Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing
- Mobil
- NCR
- New York Times
- Northern Telecom
- NW Ayer & Company
- Oracle
- Pacific Bell (SBC)
- Pfizer
- PricewaterhouseCoopers
- Polaroid
- Qualcomm
- Quark
- RJR Nabisco
- Sara Lee
- Saturn
- Scholastic
- Scudder Funds
- Shell Oil
- Silicon Graphics
- St. Paul Companies
- Starbucks
- Subaru
- Sun Microsystems
- Sybase
- The Limited, Inc.
- Time Warner
- Trillium Asset Management
- US West
- Viacom
- Village Voice
- V-Management
- Virgin Atlantic Airlines
- Visa International
- Volkswagen
- Wainwright Bank and Trust
- Walt Disney/ABC
- Wells Fargo
- Working Assets
- Xerox
- Ziff Davis Publishing
About the Annual GLV Index and GLVReports & Communications:
Grant Lukenbill, is president of GLVReports & Communications, New York,
NY a small independent consumer and investor information news service. He is
also the author of Untold Millions, Secret Truths About Marketing to Gay and
Lesbian Consumers (Haworth 1999) and the forthcoming Smart Spending For
Gay and Lesbian Consumers, What You Need To Know Before You Buy or Invest
(Alyson 1999).
The GLV Rating Scale and System (SM) was originally formed in 1995 by
Grant Lukenbill in conjunction with financial advisor, Howard Tharsing,
President of V-Management, San Francisco, CA. The GLV Index is now a wholly-owned
information product published exclusively by GLVReports & Communications
with input from numerous gay and lesbian community organizers.
The following chart forms the basis of the GLV Index Rating System:
| Qualifying Criteria |
Credit Assigned |
|
Companies using terms "sexual status" or "sexual preference"
in description of non-discrimination policy statements
and materials about gay and lesbian employees
|
2.0
|
| or: | |
|
Companies using terms "sexual orientation" instead of terms
"sexual status" or "sexual preference" in description of
non-discrimination policy statements and materials
|
3.0
|
 |
|
Companies using transgender-inclusive wording in non-discrimination
policy
statements
|
1.0
|
|
|
No significant third party support, or majority stockholderaffiliation
(51% or
more of voter shares) or ties to groups aggressively
seeking to overturn or prevent passage of g/l legal protections
|
1.0
|
|
|
Corporate giving to non-profit, nonpolitical gay/lesbian organizations
or
events
|
0.5
|
|
|
Corporate giving to politically-identified gay or lesbian organizations
or
events
|
0.5
|
|
|
Corporate giving to any AIDS charity or organization recognized
for its support of men's health and education
|
0.5
|
|
|
Corporate giving to any breast cancer charity or organization
recognized for its support of women's health and education
|
0.5
|
|
|
Diversity training inclusive of sexual orientation
|
0.5
|
|
|
Diversity training inclusive of people w/ disabilities
|
0.5
|
|
|
Company policy allowing g/l employee groups
|
0.5
|
|
|
Company officially recognizes g/l employee groups
|
0.5
|
|
|
Full g/l domestic partnership health coverage program
|
1.0
|
|
|
Total Available Credit .................................
|
10.0
|
The Equality Principles On Sexual Orientation
(According to The Equality Project of Gay and Lesbian Consumers,
Employees and Investors Working Together - www.equalityproject.org)
- Explicit prohibitions against discrimination based on sexual orientation will be included in the company's written employment policy statement.
- Discrimination against HIV positive employees or those with AIDS will be strictly prohibited.
- Employee groups, regardless of sexual orientation, will be given equal standing with other employee associations.
- Diversity Training will include sexual orientation issues.
- Spousal benefits will be offered to domestic partners of employees, regardless of sexual orientation, on an equal basis with those granted to married employees.
- Company advertising policy will bar negative sexual orientation stereotypes and will not discriminate against advertising in publications on the basis of sexual orientation.
- Companies will not discriminate in the sale of good or services on the basis or sexual orientation.
- Written non-discrimination policies on sexual orientation must be disseminated throughout the company. A senior company official will be appointed to monitor compliance corporate wide.
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