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Despite Gains Most Gay Workers Unprotected
by Doreen Brandt
365Gay.com Newscenter
Washington Bureau
May 17, 2003
12:01 a.m. ET/+5GMT/-3PT
(Washington, D.C.) Despite significant gains in the number of companies which have non discrimination provisions and which offer same-sex partner benefits, most gay workers in the US are without any protections.
A report issued Friday by the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay civil rights group, shows that county and city governments played a leading role in 2002 in extending equal protection in the workplace to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans.
More cities and counties enacted laws in 2002 prohibiting workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity than in any previous year, with 15 local jurisdictions outlawing job discrimination based on sexual orientation and 16 passing measures covering gender identity and/or expression. This compares to eight and five, respectively, in 2001, according to the report, entitled "The State of the Workplace for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Americans."
In addition, one state - New York - passed a law against sexual orientation discrimination in 2002, 30 years after the measure was first introduced.
"Employers of all types - public and private - are coming to the realization that their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees deserve to be treated equally, and that to do so is good business," said HRC Education Director Kim I. Mills.
At least 806 employers of all sizes expanded their health benefits in 2002 to include same-sex partners. A total of 5,698 employers offered health benefits to same-sex partners by the end of last year, according to the study by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.
Yet of the hundreds of thousands of corporations across the United States, the vast majority still have no written non-discrimination policies. Additionally there still are no national laws preventing LGBT discrimination.
The number of all types of employers offering domestic partner health insurance benefits grew by 16 percent in 2002.
And even though the number of Fortune 500 companies offering domestic partner benefits to same-sex couples grew by 13 percent for a total of 169 the number only represents a third of companies represented.
Among the companies which began offering domestic partner benefits in the past year are ChevronTexaco Corp.; Sears, Roebuck and Co.; and Procter & Gamble.
Married couples still get more work benefits than gays and lesbians. But Kim I. Mills, the foundation's education director and editor of the report, said progress is being made.
"As employers offer domestic partners benefits, that's a step toward a level playing field," she said.
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