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Pride Houston outing shows ExxonMobil making progress on LGBTI issues
It’s now common to see corporate staff participating in Pride parades.
However, while big companies in the tech, retail, finance and legal sectors appear to have embraced LGBTI inclusion within their core values, firms in the energy sector sometimes lag behind.
This makes ExxonMobil’s support of Houston Pride last weekend, where staff were given permission to march with an ExxonMobil banner, noteworthy. What makes it more remarkable is the shift it demonstrates in ExxonMobil’s own particular stance.
The company, which is the third largest in the world, came at the very bottom in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index in 2014 and 2015. In fact, it scored -25; the only company to ever score a minus figure.
In 2013, HRC President Chad Griffin said, ‘No company has proven itself a worse corporate citizen by betraying its LGBT employees time and again than ExxonMobil.’
That ‘betrayal’ may have been a reference to Exxon passing up an opportunity to do the right thing; when Exxon took over Mobil in 1999, it dropped the latter’s policies prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and terminated the practice of offering benefits to same-sex partners.
In an indication that the company is edging into the 21st Century, at the beginning of 2015 it re-introduced policies barring discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Furthermore, this October it will be one of the official sponsors of the annual Out and Equal Workplace Summit in Dallas – an event where hundreds of LGBTI representatives convene to discuss diversity and inclusion.
‘Like other major oil companies, Exxon is increasingly a technology company, Steve Coll, author of Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power told the New York Times. ‘They need to attract and retain the top scientific and engineering talent. They’ve been slow to recognize that it’s in their interest to move to a culture of inclusion.’
J.Chris Martin, president of Pride, Exxon-Mobil’s LGBT employee resource group, concurred, saying, ‘I think what’s changed is that we’ve been able to show there’s a business advantage to the company.’
Exxon-Mobil is headquartered in Houston, Texas. This year’s Houston Pride parade took place in the Downtown district, after 36 years in the Montrose neighborhood. Organizers estimate that the relocation helped this year’s event attract something in the region of 700,000 people.
Mike Craig, Co-Chair of advocacy group Out & Equal Houston told Gay Star Business that ExxonMobil’s participation in the event was a positive sign.
‘It was great to see the ExxonMobil contingent in the Houston Pride Parade last Saturday evening – and a fitting celebratory milestone for all the hard work and engagement that LGBT XOM employees and their allies have put in over these last few years.
‘ExxonMobil employees have been active participants in many past Out & Equal Houston events – and were, in fact, part of the business group that came together and proposed establishing the Houston chapter. So it’s gratifying to see their company join the ranks of industry leaders like Chevron, BP & Shell in embracing LGBT-inclusive workplace policies.’
A spokesperson for Human Rights Campaign also welcomed the group’s participation.
‘We are cautiously optimistic about the company strengthening its LGBT inclusion programs,’ said Liz Halloran, who also pointed out the company’s aforementioned change to its Equal Employment Opportunity as move in the right direction.
ExxonMobil have been approached for further comment.
H/T: New York Times
The post Pride Houston outing shows ExxonMobil making progress on LGBTI issues appeared first on Gay Star News.
David Hudson
www.gaystarnews.com/article/pride-houston-outing-shows-exxonmobil-making-progress-on-lgbti-issues/
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