For a number of years, Exxon scored the lowest score possible on Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index — a minus-25.
When Exxon merged with Mobil in 1999, it took benefits away from Mobil employees and kept those benefits away until the Obergefell marriage equality ruling. Then, Exxon’s longtime CEO, Rex Tillerson, retired from the company. That’s when Exxon’s score shot up from the basement and now is only five points behind every other major oil company.
The company loses five points in category four of the scorecard: “Positively Engages the External LGBTQ Community (15 points) (partial credit of 10 points given for less than 3 efforts) Have internal guidelines that prohibit philanthropic giving to non-religious organizations with an explicit policy of discrimination against LGBTQ people (5 points)”
In other CEI news, a record 609 companies received perfect scores. The news for transgender employees at major corporations is better than ever. Gender identity is now part of non-discrimination policies at 83 percent of Fortune 500 companies, up from just 3 percent in 2002, the CEI’s first year. A total of 459 major employers have adopted supportive inclusion guidelines for transgender workers who are transitioning.
The full CEI can be found here.
— David Taffet
