SouthernVoice.com – Zack Hudson
Sixteen of Georgia?s Fortune 500 companies received high marks from the national Human Rights Campaign for implementing pro-gay policies, ranging from domestic partner benefits to gender identity protections.
The HRC?s ?State of the Workplace Report,? released June 29, stated that more than 50 percent of the nation?s Fortune 500 companies now provide equal benefits for gay employees. Atlanta-based Sun Trust Banks Inc. and the Coca-Cola Co. are leading the way in the state as the only two companies offering employees protection against discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, as well as providing domestic partner benefits.
?In order for us to be competitive for people who give excellent performance ? these policies allow us to serve our customers? needs better,? explained Carolyn Cartwright, senior vice president at SunTrust Banks and the director of diversity initiatives for the company.
Of the 500 largest employers in the United States, 51 percent, or 253, now offer some form of domestic partner benefit, and more exercise policies that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, said Daryl Herrschaft, director of the HRC?s Workplace Project.
?I think we?ve really hit a milestone now that a majority of the major companies in this country now provide benefits equally,? he said.
Of Georgia?s 18 Fortune 500 companies, Atlanta-based BlueLinx Holdings Inc., Genuine Parts Co., Mirant Corp., Newell Rubbermaid Inc. and Southern Co. as well as Columbus-based AFLAC, include protection against sexual orientation discrimination.