Out & Equal odds & ends

After astronaut Sally Ride died, her obituary mentioned she was in a relationship of 27 years.
“I couldn’t live like that,” NBA player Jason Collins told attendees at the Out & Equal Workplace Summit.
That’s when he came out.
Collins said he was lucky to have a supportive family. He came out first to his twin brother, who has become a strong ally, and to an aunt, who always asked him about his social life using gender-neutral language.
ExxonMobil
The day marriage equality passed, ExxonMobil began offering benefits to its employees with same-sex spouses.
Ever since Exxon and Mobil merged in 1999 and former Mobil employees lost their partner benefits, the new company had resisted every attempt to reinstate those benefits. ExxonMobil recommended “no” votes against shareholder resolutions to add nondiscrimination to the company’s HR policies. But to be fair, the company has recommended “no” votes on every shareholder resolution it was ever forced to allow a vote on.
While other companies — including companies scoring 100 on the Corporate Equality Index — have had discrimination complaints filed against them, ExxonMobil employees didn’t seem to file those types of complaints against their company.
No one from ExxonMobil was registered as attending Out & Equal this year, but the company is listed as a gold sponsor of the event.
Stonewall 50
Make plans to be in New York on June 26, 2019. Stonewall 50 is already being planned.
A week after the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village was declared a historic landmark, board members of the organization were in Dallas promoting plans for the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the modern LGBT rights movement.
New York’s annual Pride celebration already attracts more than 2.1 million people to 11 events that include two dances on a pier, a march, a rally and a festival.
The events in 2019 promise to be huge. NYCPride.org has the annual information and Stonewall50.org will have information about the anniversary celebration including travel packages and hotel space that will be at a premium.