247Gay.com
Washington, D.C. – ExxonMobil shareholders voted with record support for a resolution to add “sexual orientation” to the company’s written equal employment opportunity policy. The percentage of shares voted in favor of the proposal has grown each of the last seven years, with 34.6 percent of shares voted in favor of the policy this year, an increase from 29.4 percent in 2005. A more than five percent increase is exceptional for a shareholder vote and represents about 1.75 billion total shares voted in favor of the proposal.
“The long-term energy needs of ExxonMobil customers are in no way served by policies that ignore hard-working gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “The company claims it already has this policy, yet it stands alone as the only Fortune 50 company that refuses to write it down. It’s our hope that the company’s new CEO takes this vote as a strong signal to join its competitors, many of whom protect employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation as well as gender identity and allow employees to provide health insurance for their domestic partners.”
In May 2004, 28.9 percent of shares were voted in favor of the policy. A total of 427 companies in the Fortune 500 – or 85 percent – include sexual orientation in their non-discrimination policies and 81 include gender identity.