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Exxon Votes To Continue Discrimination Of LGBT Community |
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Written by Jonathan Higbee |
Wednesday, 30 May 2012
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| Tags: exxon, mobil, shareholders, vote, dallas, against, lgbt, non discrimination, policy, employment protections, homophobia, companies, human rights campaign, corporate equality index, 2012, reject |
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ExxonMobil won't be jumping to the top of the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index (CEI) anytime soon; moments ago, shareholders once again voted against adding LGBT employment protections to the company's nondiscrimination policy. Details follow.
The Dallas Voice breaks the news:
Meeting at the Meyerson Symphony Center in the Dallas Arts District, the ExxonMobil shareholders voted 80 percent to 20 percent against a resolution asking the corporation to amend “its written equal employment opportunity policy to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and to substantially implement the policy.” The 80-20 margin of defeat was one of the largest in recent memory for the proposal, which has been introduced each year since Mobil and Exxon merged in 1999. The percentage of shareholders voting for the policy had increased steadily over the years to about 40 percent, before dropping off significantly after gender identity was added in 2008.
Mobil was one of the first companies in the world to include sexual orientation in its nondiscrimination policy and offer benefits to the same-sex partners of gay employees. But ExxonMobil rescinded those policies after the merger.
ExxonMobil's reps insist such an addition to its nondiscrimination policy is unnecessary, stating that the company is already a "meritocracy." Still, that has nothing to do with the fact that ExxonMobil's LGBT employees can be fired for being born that way. This is why Exxon will likely maintain the HRC's lowest CEI rating at minus-25.
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