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Mar 14, 2013 CSRHub Blogging

Hundreds of Companies Support Gay-marriage

The Supreme Court will be taking up the gay-marriage issue for the first time at the end of March. Apple Inc., Morgan Stanley, and many other companies are same-sex marriage advocates. These companies are standing against the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). This law states that legally married gay couples can’t claim the federal tax breaks and other benefits available to opposite-sex spouses. Hundreds of American companies have spoken out against the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8 over the years, and many of those companies signed onto briefs opposing both anti-gay laws. In 2008, Proposition 8 put a ban on gay marriage in California. This is now being challenged by corporate groups such as Facebook Inc. and Intel Corp. They have argued that “gay-marriage bans in 41 states harm workplace morale and undermine recruiting” (Greg Stohr). Companies such as Starbucks, Amazon and Apple have supported a brief that says "Proposition 8 and similar laws inflict real and wholly unnecessary injury on business ... No matter how welcoming the corporate culture, it cannot overcome the societal stigma institutionalized by Proposition 8 and similar laws."

CSRHub tracks 245 companies that have gay and lesbian partner benefits. Companies on this list have implemented policies that respond to the special needs of gay, lesbian, and transgender employees. These policies may include expanded health and family leave policies, explicit rules regarding workplace discrimination, and management training programs. Of the 202 companies that backCSRHub gay marriage, 78 are identified by CSRHub as having these gay and lesbian policies and benefits. Some of these companies are listed below.

 Companies with Gay and Lesbian policies

Adobe Systems Inc. JetBlue Airways Corporation
Aetna Inc. Johnson & Johnson
Akamai Technologies, Inc. Levi Strauss & Co.
Alaska Air Group, Inc. Marriott International, Inc.
Alcoa Inc. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co.
Alere Inc. Microsoft Corporation
Amazon.com, Inc. Morgan Stanley
Ameristar Casinos, Inc. NIKE, Inc.
Apple Inc. Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
BlackRock, Inc. Oracle America, Inc.
Boston Scientific Corporation Orbitz Worldwide
Broadcom Corporation Pfizer Inc.
Caesars Entertainment Corporation Qualcomm Incorporated
CBS Corporation Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI)
Cisco Systems, Inc. salesforce.com, Inc.
Citigroup Inc. Starbucks Corporation
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC State Street Corporation
Deutsche Bank AG Stonyfield Farm, Inc.
Diageo North America, Inc. Support.com
eBay Inc. The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation
Electronic Arts Inc. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
EMC Corporation The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Ernst & Young LLP Thomson Reuters
Exelon Corporation UBS AG
Facebook, Inc. Verity Credit Union
Google Inc. Viacom Inc.
Group Health Cooperative Vulcan Inc.
Intel Corporation Walt Disney Company
Intuit Inc. Xerox Corporation

 

[csrhubwidget company="Starbucks-Corporation" size="650x100" hash="c9c0f7"]

Photo courtesy of freedomtomarry.org.


CSRHub provides access to corporate social responsibility and sustainability ratings and information on 7,000+ companies from 135 industries in 91 countries. Managers, researchers and activists use CSRHub to benchmark company performance, learn how stakeholders evaluate company CSR practices and seek ways to change the world.

CSRHub rates 12 indicators of employee, environment, community and governance performance and flags many special issues. We offer subscribers immediate access to millions of detailed data points from our 200 data sources. Our data comes from eight ESG (environment, social, governance) analysts, well-known indexes, publications, “best of” or “worst of” lists, NGOs, crowd sources and government agencies. By aggregating and normalizing the information from these sources, CSRHub has created a broad, consistent rating system and a searchable database that links each rating point back to its source. The rapidly expanding CSRHub dataset principally adheres to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G3.1 guidelines.

 

Published by CSRHub Blogging March 14, 2013