UPDATE: A Resounding No: ExxonMobil Votes Against Its LGBT Employees

[SandraJane]

ExxonMobil: Evolve already on LGBT workplace protections


Filed: Thursday, May 24, 2012


http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2012/05/exxonmobil-evolve-already-on-lgbt-workplace-protections/





DALLAS — The Dallas Morning News on Thursday weighed in on ExxonMobil's 13-year refusal to add workplace protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Texas-based oil giant has repeatedly resisted a implementing a formal policy prohibiting discrimination against LGBT employees, and is the only Fortune 500 company to receive a negative rating in the HRC's annual Corporate Equality Index.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

DallasNews.com/The Dallas Morning News



Editorial: Corporate America's rainbow revolution


Published: 23 May 2012 10:03 PM


http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20120523-editorial-corporate-americas-rainbow-revolution.ece


Corporate America is now leading the way in extending benefits to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees. This quiet revolution has taken place even though it is legal in 29 states, including Texas, to discriminate against employees because of their sexual orientation.

The 2012 report by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, which is the research and education arm of the LGBT civil rights group, reveals a rather remarkable transformation over the last decade. An astonishing 88 of the Fortune 500 companies received perfect scores in the annual Corporate Equality Index, which was even more rigorous this time around because the top rating required employers to extend health insurance coverage without exclusions to transgender employees.

[Lyric]

ExxonMobil is a monster company run by a handful of grumpy stuffed shirt men. Most world governments are less powerful than them. They don't make changes often or without strong motivation. The last time they made substantial company policy changes to their safety procedures after the Exxon Valdez oil tanker disaster. All those guys pay attention to are their billions.

[dalebert]

All those guys pay attention to are their billions.

Then someone needs to help them understand that it's bad for business to discriminate on things that aren't relevant to doing the job well.

[Lyric]

With a less diverse big company that might be possible. Boycotts have been tried against ExxonMobil before and got absolutely nowhere. One factor is the little realized fact that the gas stations bearing those company names only provide a portion of the company's income. Petroleum products permeate our entire society and culture and ExxonMobil has a stake in pretty much all of it. Every time you drink from a plastic cup, use your IPhone, watch your TV, turn on your computer, start your car, walk down street, fly in a jet airplane or chew gum you're probably using an ExxonMobil product.

[Jamie D]

Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Plastics.

[SandraJane]

Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Plastics.

???What does The Graduate have to do with this

[Jamie D]

Plastics!  Plastics are largely petrochemical products.

Lyric wrote: Every time you drink from a plastic cup, use your IPhone, watch your TV, turn on your computer, start your car, walk down street, fly in a jet airplane or chew gum you're probably using an ExxonMobil product.

[dalebert]

With a less diverse big company that might be possible. Boycotts...

I never said boycott. I'm not sure how to get through to them, but it really is bad for business to discriminate whether people boycott you over it or not. You're not getting the best people if you're discriminating over things that aren't relevant to doing the best job possible. And as the culture blazes ahead of them, they're hurting their P.R. The closeted employees they have are likely not performing as well as they could in a more supportive environment where they would get the same benefits as someone else for the same work. No company should want employees that are resentful and more concerned with just putting up a show of performance than actually doing the best job they can to help the company succeed.

Their leadership doesn't get that they're simply making bad decisions with regard to the bottom line, regardless of how they personally feel about these issues. It's just bad business. Most of the corporate world is way ahead of the government on these issues. Exxon is a dinosaur, both literally and figuratively. (Get it? Cause they use fossil fuels? hehe)

[Lyric]

I agree with that. A dinosaur it is-- and it's living directly off the dinosaurs. They're just slow moving old fogies, though. They'll change after they see positive results elsewhere. Since they're already at the top of they're game and doing well, there's no motivation to take chances.

~ Lyric ~

[Jamie D]

Oil actually comes from the remains of plankton.  Dinosaurs were more likely to end up as coal.

[dalebert]

Oil actually comes from the remains of plankton.  Dinosaurs were more likely to end up as coal.

Okay, fine, but it's still dinosaur plankton!   

[Jamie D]

Okay, fine, but it's still dinosaur plankton!   

Is that like "jumbo shrimp"?

[Shana A]

A Resounding No: ExxonMobil Votes Against Its LGBT Employees
BY Lucas Grindley
May 30 2012 8:01 PM ET

http://www.advocate.com/business/2012/05/30/exxon-mobil-votes-overwhelmingly-against-protecting-lgbt-employees

ExxonMobil today voted against protecting LGBT employees from discrimination, as it has done time and time before.

Some 80% of shareholders voted against adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the company's anti-discrimination policy, according to the Dallas Voice, which shared photos of protesters from GetEqual rallying against the company. The company has voted against the protections every year since 1999, when Exxon merged with Mobil and stripped away rules that had been in place.

Although ExxonMobil tops the Fortune 500 list, it is a notoriously poor place to work for LGBT people, at least according to rankings provided annually by the Human Rights Campaign. For the first time ever, HRC gave companies negative scores in its 2012 rankings and slapped ExxonMobil with a -25 in its Corporate Equality Index.

In previous years, ExxonMobil had scored straight zeroes.