Reddit has banned the anti-LGBTQ+ slur “groomer” under its hate speech policy, as well as any other reference to LGBTQ+ people as “paedophiles”.
The vile slur, which conflates LGBTQ+ identities with paedophilia, has been increasing in use online, and has now been banned by Reddit as hate speech.
Journalist Alejandra Caraballo explained on Twitter that the social media platform will now “enforce their hate speech policy on content that utilizes the groomer libel”, which means that posts containing the slur will break Reddit policy and could be taken down.
The community “Against Hate Subreddits” added that as well as the “groomer” slur, Reddit will now enforce its hate speech policy on those who portray being transgender as a mental illness, or quote transgender suicide statistics in a hateful way.
Caraballo added: “Your move Twitter”, referencing Twitter users’ complaints that the social media site does not do enough to prevent hate speech.
The Data for Progress poll surveyed 1,155 likely voters and asked them about the spread of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation across the US, as well as certain slurs and stereotypes.
The poll stated: “Some groups have been describing teachers and parents who oppose banning discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in schools as ‘groomers’ – a term used to describe someone who gets close to and builds trust with a child or young person with the intent of sexually abusing them.”
Respondents were asked whether they agreed that “teachers and parents that support discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity in school” in the wake of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislation were “groomers”, and a majority of 55 per cent said they did not.
Broken down by political affiliation, just 15 per cent of likely Democrat voters supported anti-LGBTQ+ “groomer” language, while 45 per cent of likely Republican voters agreed with the slur.
A Reddit spokesperson said: “Reddit is a place for creating community and belonging. In line with this, our content policy prohibits content that promotes hate based on identity or vulnerability, including gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation.
“We regularly reach out to the communities on our platform to remind them of our policies and offer support, and we will continue to enforce our policies across the platform.”
Despite great strides of progress over the past few decades, the fight for full equality and acceptance of LGBTQ people is far from over.
Corporates has been a growing ally and critical partner in many key moments for LGBTQ rights, including the movement for marriage equality, the fight to decriminalize LGBTQ people in India in 2018, and the successful 2017 campaign to repeal the anti-LGBTQ HB 2 in North Carolina. Brands have immense power, especially in their advertising, where LGBTQ visibility and representation matters. This brand power extends outside of advertising as well – to all internal and external communications.
A number of corporations and brands prioritize workplaces where LGBTQ employees can achieve and have equal benefits and opportunities. But this is just one step on the journey toward true allyship. Corporate accountability does not begin and end with employee benefits and hiring practices – it extends to how a corporation spends its dollars, philanthropic and political. It extends to how a corporation takes public stands and lobbies against anti-LGBTQ legislation, and how it supports and lobbies for pro-LGBTQ legislation, because this legislation impacts LGBTQ employees and consumers.
Protecting all LGBTQ people, including LGBTQ people of color, members of the trans community, and LGBTQ youth, is both good for business and good for the world. The journey to true allyship for LGBTQ people is not always easy, but it is always important. Any company that wants to be a true ally of the LGBTQ community should work toward the below recommendations. Recent high-profile calls to action from LGBTQ employees and LGBTQ consumers have shown that the bar for corporate allies has been raised. Community leaders and press actively research a company’s political donations and other internal information and speak out if a Pride or other LGBTQ-inclusive marketing campaign conflicts with a company’s internal policies or political giving.
Note that these recommendations should not be considered an exhaustive checklist, at the end of which a company is “done.” Being an ally is an active, ongoing, principled journey.
Especially during LGBTQ Pride Month, and for Pride campaigns:
June is LGBTQ Pride Month, and a time when many brands showcase support for LGBTQ people. June should not be the only time this support is exhibited, but it is the loudest time of year for allies to express support for the community. At a time when brands are trusted by many consumers, and advertising and brand marketing have the opportunity to educate the general public on LGBTQ people and issues, GLAAD recommends that companies showcase support and include LGBTQ people in campaigns year-round. The following are best practices for public or internal Pride campaigns, though they should be used for campaigns outside of Pride Month too.
Don’t market to the moment, join the movement: Give back to LGBTQ advocacy and direct service non-profits. Involve LGBTQ employees in deciding the causes and organizations to support, and include state and local organizations, as well as organizations led by and serving transgender people and LGBTQ people of color.
Showcase the diversity and intersectionality of the LGBTQ community in advertising, marketing, public advocacy, internal communications, and employee programming. This includes ability, age, body size, ethnicity, faith, geography, race, socioeconomic status, and more.
Feature more LGBTQ talent and community members in external mainstream and community specific campaigns and programming. Compensate LGBTQ talent for appearances and panels, both internal and external facing, at corporate events and in promotion of LGBTQ-inclusive campaigns.
Include LGBTQ consultants who specialize in storytelling and out LGBTQ creatives behind the scenes. Take a comprehensive inclusive approach, from the creation of the campaign to the final product. Include LGBTQ professionals on marketing, production, and other third-party consulting roles.
Bring in LGBTQ voices early for LGBTQ Pride Month campaigns. LGBTQ consultants, talent, employees, and nonprofit partners should be a part of conversations around Pride initiatives as plans are being developed. Allow ample time to bring LGBTQ voices, professionals, and beneficiaries into planning for June.
Devote budgets to Pride campaigns that are consistent with other programmatic campaigns, consistent with LGBTQ consumer behaviors.
Be very aware who the target for Pride initiatives are. Some initiatives will primarily benefit LGBTQ employees. Others may target consumers. Others may target the community where you operate. Each one of those targets will have a distinct, if overlapping, focus.
Every day of the year, including LGBTQ Pride Month and beyond:
Extend support to the political fight. True corporate allies do not donate to candidates or elected officials who introduce, vote yes, or otherwise support anti-LGBTQ legislation or block passage of pro-LGBTQ legislation like the Equality Act. Develop criteria to vet elected officials and political donations by evaluating candidate platforms and LGBTQ voting records.
Use your company’s leverage and internal resources, including social media, marketing, public relations and government affairs, to speak out against local and national anti-LGBTQ legislation, and engage other businesses to do the same. Speak out and support pro-LGBTQ legislation when proposed.
Support LGBTQ media via advertising buys to get your message heard. Include LGBTQ publications, digital and print, in media plans during Pride and all year round.
Support the notion of Pride 365 and plan LGBTQ-inclusive campaigns and support for the community year-round, not just during Pride month. Consider including LGBTQ people and families in holiday creative, Mother’s and Father’s Day, and other moments of recognition like Black History Month.
Seek out Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) training, including LGBTQ-specific workshops, for yourself and your employees as well as. Seek out resources like the GLAAD Media Institute.
Commit to employee recruitment initiatives that include the LGBTQ community, including outreach to transgender people and LGBTQ people of color.
Use meetings with your LGBTQ ERG to learn what LGBTQ issues are arising where your company does business, and to help form strategic responses with support from external LGBTQ experts and consultancies.
Tell authentic and accurate LGBTQ stories, spotlighting LGBTQ people and issues year-round on social media, in editorial, and in internal communications, with consideration for how these stories enter into a cultural context and conversation.
Real-world examples:
Speaking out against anti-LGBTQ legislation: Apple
Amidst an unprecedented wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation in 2022, Apple utilized multiple offices to take action. Apple lobbied against these harmful bills, filled court briefs in cases involving LGBTQ people, and encouraged other large companies to take public stands against this legislation. (Read more here.)
Building authentic LGBTQ campaigns that give back: Can’t Cancel Pride, PUMA
In 2020, iHeartRadio and P&G developed Can’t Cancel Pride, a concert in celebration of LGBTQ Pride, available to all via iHeartRadio livestream. In 2022, the now annual effort brings top out artists including Lizzo, Elton John, and Kim Petras, to raise awareness of current LGBTQ issues and support from more than 20 brands to donate funds to GLAAD, SAGE, The Trevor Project, the National Black Justice Coalition, CenterLink, and OutRight Action International. (Read more here.)
When ideating on their 2022 LGBTQ Pride Month efforts, PUMA collaborated with LGBTQ talent, creatives, and advocates from start to finish. PUMA partnered with Texas-based out queer artist Carra Sykes to design a Pride footwear collection, partnered with Cara Delevingne to help promote the collection, and collaborated with out photographer LaQuann Dawson to lead the collection’s photography. Proceeds from the collection benefit GLAAD.
For media inquiries, contact press@glaad.org. The GLAAD Media Institute consults behind-the-scenes on LGBTQ representation with brands, Hollywood, journalists, tech products, and more content creators. To learn more about the GLAAD Media Institute’s workshops and trainings for corporate allies, contact partnerships@glaad.org.
Twitter on Monday labeled but refused to take down a pair of highly transphobic tweets attacking Adm. Rachel Levine, the assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Why it matters: Twitter has a practice of often labeling — but not removing — tweets from elected officials that would otherwise violate its terms of service.
Details:
The tweets, linked here, misgender Levine while also using extremely vile terminology to describe gender reassignment surgery.
Twitter’s move means that people will have to click through a warning to view the tweets. Twitter will also limit sharing of the posts.
What they’re saying: “The Tweet you referenced violated the Twitter Rules on hateful conduct,” Twitter said in a statement to Axios.
“However, we’ve determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible, and has been labeled in line with our policies.”
Meanwhile, GLAAD, the LGBTQ civil rights group, condemned Twitter’s move as inadequate.
“This account has repeatedly and intentionally violated Twitter’s Hateful Conduct guidelines against targeted deadnaming and misgendering of transgender people,” a GLAAD spokesperson told Axios. “It’s clear that some politicians see pushing malicious, anti-trans content on social media as part of their election strategy, even with the full knowledge that such content is violative.”
Between the lines: Twitter has already suspended and then banned Greene’s personal Twitter account but has refused in the past to take action against her official account despite apparent violations of various policies, including the prohibition against deliberate misgendering.
Allowing the latest tweets to remain reignites questions as to just what it takes to get Twitter to remove tweets from elected officials. Twitter eventually banned former President Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection.
A spokesperson for Adm. Levine declined to comment.
Be smart: The tweets also falsely promote the idea that gender-affirming care for youth relates to surgery.
For young trans kids, gender-affirming care involves social transition and support. Kids approaching puberty may be prescribed puberty blockers to delay the onset of puberty while some older teens are allowed access to hormones.
The owners of an Applebee’s franchise restaurant in Plant City, Florida must pay $100,000 to settle claims that it allowed racist and homophobic discrimination against a gay Black employee.
Shortly after Jebriel Teague, a gay Black man, began working as a line cook for the Applebee’s franchise in March 2019, two of his co-workers — Cody Curby and Bobby Hogge — made inappropriate jokes about his sexual orientation, directing comments to him about dildos and anal beads on a near daily basis, and frequently using the n-word as well as slurs like “f**,” “f****t,” and “bi**h,” the complaint states.
Hogge also wore a Confederate flag hat all the time at work, a flag which has since been banned from all U.S. military installations as an emblem of white supremacy.
When Teague told his supervisors about his co-workers’ behavior, his supervisors told him that the men were just joking and that he should ignore it. The harassment continued. Even though Teague’s manager said he would investigate the harassment, no notes on the investigation exist.
When Teague continued to complain about his mistreatment, nearly half of his hours were cut. The lack of hours and continued mistreatment effectively forced him to quit in June 2019, barely three months after he was first employed.
Teague filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC determined that the business’ practices violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.
The EEOC then contacted Neighborhood Restaurant Partners Florida, LLC (NRP), the company that owns the franchise, to correct the discriminatory practices and provide relief to Teague. Eventually, the EEOC sued NRP on Teague’s behalf, filing a suit in Federal District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
In addition to paying $100,000, NRP must also provide the EEOC with reports of what it has done to resolve any reports of harassment.
Evangeline Hawthorne, the EEOC’s Tampa field office director, said that while the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia was a huge step forward — ruling that employees can’t be discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation of gender identity because of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act — LGBTQ employees still face discrimination in the workplace.
“No employee should have to endure homophobic and racist harassment by co-workers,” said EEOC Regional Attorney Robert E. Weisberg. “Failing to take corrective action to correct a work environment permeated with racial and homophobic slurs, and, even worse, punishing an employee for reporting harassment, will not be tolerated.”
GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, released the findings of its second annual Social Media Safety Index (SMSI), a report on LGBTQ user safety across five major social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok.
The outcome says GLAAD is an utter failure to protect the safety of LGBTQ+ users.
The 2022 SMSI introduces a Platform Scorecard developed by GLAAD in partnership with Ranking Digital Rights and Goodwin Simon Strategic Research. The Platform Scorecard utilizes twelve LGBTQ-specific indicators to generate numeric ratings with regard to LGBTQ safety, privacy, and expression. A listing of the indicators is available here and below. After reviewing the platforms on measures like explicit protections from hate and harassment for LGBTQ users, offering gender pronoun options on profiles, and prohibiting advertising that could be harmful and/or discriminatory to LGBTQ people, all platforms scored under a 50 out of a possible 100:
● Instagram: 48%
● Facebook: 46%
● Twitter: 45%
● YouTube: 45%
● TikTok: 43%
Primary Platform Scorecard indicators include:
● The company should disclose a policy commitment to protect LGBTQ users from harm, discrimination, harassment, and hate on the platform.
● The company should disclose an option for users to add pronouns to user profiles.
● The company should disclose a policy that expressly prohibits targeted deadnaming and misgendering of other users.
● The company should clearly disclose what options users have to control the company’s collection, inference, and use of information related to their sexual orientation and gender identity.
● The company should disclose training for content moderators, including those employed by contractors, that trains them on the needs of vulnerable users, including LGBTQ users.
“Today’s political and cultural landscapes demonstrate the real-life harmful effects of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and misinformation online,” said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis. “The hate and harassment, as well as misinformation and flat-out lies about LGBTQ people, that go viral on social media are creating real-world dangers, from legislation that harms our community to the recent threats of violence at Pride gatherings. Social media platforms are active participants in the rise of anti-LGBTQ cultural climate and their only response can be to urgently create safer products and policies, and then enforce those policies.”
GLAAD also released new data from a May 2022 study conducted with Community Marketing & Insights. 84% of LGBTQ adults agree there are not enough protections on social media to prevent discrimination, harassment, or disinformation. 40% of all LGBTQ adults, and 49% of transgender and nonbinary people, do not feel welcomed and safe on social media.
Additionally, the newly released 2022 ADL Online Hate and Harassment report found that 66% of LGBTQ users experienced harassment online, with 54% of LGBTQ users reporting severe harassment including sustained harassment, stalking, or doxxing.
In addition to the Platform Scorecard, GLAAD’s SMSI provides specific recommendations to each platform to improve LGBTQ safety.
Additional trends reported in the SMSI include:
● Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric on social media translates to real-life harm, including reported levels of increased severe harassment for LGBTQ users when compared to 2021.
● The problem of anti-LGBTQ hate speech and misinformation continues to be a public health and safety issue. Viral misinformation and inaccuracies have been cited as drivers of many of the nearly 250 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in states around the country this year. Platforms are largely meeting this dangerous misinformation with inaction and often do not enforce their own policies regarding such content.
● Issues like the promotion of so-called “conversion therapy,” targeted misgendering and deadnaming, and lack of true transparency reporting, remain prevalent for select platforms. Only select platforms prohibit actions like targeted misgendering and the promotion of conversion therapy. These actions need to be prohibited across the industry.
● Companies possess the tools they need to effectively curb anti-LGBTQ hate and rhetoric but instead are prioritizing profit over LGBTQ safety and lives.
Recommendations across platforms include:
● Improve the design of algorithms that currently circulate and amplify harmful content, extremism, and hate.
● Train moderators to understand the needs of LGBTQ users, and to moderate across all languages, cultural contexts, and regions.
● Be transparent with regard to content moderation, community guidelines and terms of service policy implementation, and algorithm designs.
● Strengthen and enforce existing community guidelines and terms of service that protect LGBTQ people and others.
● Respect data privacy, especially where LGBTQ people are vulnerable to serious harms and violence. This includes ceasing the practice of targeted surveillance advertising, in which companies use powerful algorithms to recommend content to users in order to maximize profit.
A woman who worked at a Chick-fil-A in Decatur, Georgia, has filed a federal lawsuit claiming she was wrongfully fired after being harassed for four months by her co-workers for being transgender.
The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia in late June by Erin Taylor, 29, who told NBC News she transitioned about three years ago. She is referred to in court documents by her legal name, which is different from the name she uses.
The lawsuit accuses her former employer of condoning a workplace that included “sexual harassment,” “discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation” and “retaliation.” Employers in the U.S. are barred from discriminating against LGBTQ employees on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity following the 2020 landmarkSupreme Court case Bostock v. Clayton County.
Taylor started working at the fast-food restaurant in late August 2021 to train as director of operations and soon after was verbally harassed by a co-worker who made “sexual passes” at her and made “very vulgar comments” about her, she told NBC News.
“I was excited, and unfortunately that excitement changed quickly, starting with my first day,” she said.
Taylor reported the incident to her supervisor, and after several complaints was directed to the franchise owner of the Chick-fil-A location, according to the lawsuit.
“The Franchise Owner responded by saying that it should be an honor that with (Taylor) being a transgender woman that someone liked her enough to hit on her,” the suit says.
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The owner of the location, mentioned in the suit as Joe Engert, did not return NBC News’ requests for comment Tuesday. Chick-fil-A did not return NBC News’ request for comment either.
Taylor said that after her co-workers learned she was transgender, the “countenance of the entire restaurant changed.” The lawsuit says co-workers started purposely misgendering Taylor, and the co-worker who had initially made advances toward her started making violent and transphobic threats.
“A lot of transphobia started happening,” she said. “Immediately, I became fearful. Immediately, the anxiety started.”
Taylor was fired in November 2021, the suits says. Her employer said she was terminated because she left the job while on the clock, she told NBC News, but she alleges in the suit she was being harassed by her supervisor and was given permission to leave. She filed a discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission that month, according to the lawsuit.
The fast-food chain has a history of anti-LGBTQ behavior, critics say. The company’s billionaire CEO, Dan Cathy, expressed opposition to gay marriage in a 2012 interview, but in a statement the company later said the company’s “culture and service tradition” was to “treat every person with honor, dignity and respect — regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender.” The statement also promised the company would back away from the same-sex marriage debate at the time.
Chick-fil-A pledged in 2019 that it would no longer donate to organizations that had been criticized for what some saw as anti-LGBTQ policies. But Cathy was among those who topped the list of donors who bankrolled an effort in 2021 to kill the Equality Act, the Daily Beast reported at the time after reviewing tax filings and accidental public disclosures.
Taylor said that although she was “walking in blind” to what somehave characterized as the company’s anti-LGBTQ history, she shouldn’t have needed to be aware of it.
“In any professional environment, I would expect that company, and individuals working for that company, to uphold themselves in a professional manner,” she said. “That didn’t happen.”
A transgender woman is suing a franchise of the notoriously anti-LGBTQ fast-food chain Chick-fil-a for harassment and wrongful termination after she was allegedly subjected to homophobic comments and sexual harassment.
Aaron White had barely started her first day of training to become director of operations at a Chick-fil-a location in Decatur, Georgia when a co-worker allegedly sexually harassed her by saying, “I would eat your a*s and p***y” and “On God, I will f**k the s**t out of you.”
The on-duty shift leader reportedly told White to share what happened with the franchise owner, Joe Engert. Engert allegedly replied by telling White that “it should be an honor… [as] a transgender woman that someone liked her enough to hit on her,” White’s lawsuit states.
After Engert spoke with the accused employee, the employee allegedly began making violent, racist, and homophobic threats referencing White, including statements such as, “On God, I’m not with that gay s**t,” and “Hell nah, I’ll beat that gay [n-word] a*s.” White said the employee was never reprimanded, and that Engert said he would have to investigate White’s behavior if she continued reporting claims of harassment.
As word of White’s trans identity began to spread, other employees began to misgender her and direct homophobic comments at her, White alleges. Some employees claimed that the bad scent coming from a broken pipe in the restaurant had actually come from White’s hormone replacement therapy.
Engert later fired White for tardiness and for abruptly leaving her shift. But White says Engert didn’t fire other employees at her same level who had also been tardy. She also said she had received approval to leave her shift early, alleging that Engert only fired her for her LGBTQ identity.
“Defendant [Engert] did not take reasonable steps to correct the situation or prevent the harassment from recurring after being notified by Plaintiff [White] on numerous occasions,” White’s court filing states.
White now seeks damages for emotional pain and suffering, inconvenience, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, lost wages, and other non-financial losses. She filed her lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
Though Chick-fil-A franchises are individually owned, the fast-food chain has been synonymous with anti-LGBTQ ideology since 2012 when it was caught making donations to anti-LGBTQ organizations that oppose marriage equality and support conversion therapy. When asked about the company’s donations, then-CEO Dan Cathy said that the company was “guilty as charged” because they want to promote “the biblical definition of the family unit.”
Chick-fil-A later said they would stop funding organizations with “political agendas.” But years later, they were caught donating to anti-LGBTQ groups yet again. In June 2021, Cathy was caught using the profits gained from the company to fund hate groups that helped pass anti-transgender bills all over the country as well as a campaign to stop the Equality Act from becoming law.
The Human Rights Campaign announced Wednesday that companies wishing to keep their title next year of “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality” will need to advance the community’s rights in the public sphere.
Writing in The Advocate, HRC interim President Joni Madison said her organization would no longer automatically award the distinction to firms achieving a top score in the Corporate Equality Index, the group’s tool to measure companies’ support for LGBTQ workplace inclusion.
“Corporate social responsibility today is about going beyond HR plans and benefits,” she wrote in an op-ed. “It’s about the business companies do and how their values carry through everything they do — from internal policies to products to politics.”
For the 2023 index, companies will still be able to achieve a top score of 100 based on the group’s existing set of criteria for measuring internal LGBTQ inclusion. However, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group said it will only recognize employers as the “Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality” if they exceed its index’s benchmarks.
“Companies earning this distinction must have a 100 on the CEI and will need to be bar setters for how companies can do even more — from taking a stand in the public square against elected officials harming LGBTQ+ youth to mitigating the harm of their products and services on our community,” Madison wrote. “Importantly, to receive this award, they will need to be nominated by their workers.”
HRC published its first Corporate Equality Index in 2002. Back then, it rated companies on a set of seven factors, which included having written nondiscrimination policies protecting LGBT employees, offering health insurance coverage to employees’ same-sex domestic partners and engaging in “respectful and appropriate” marketing to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
Only 13 of the 319 rated employers achieved a top score of 100 in the inaugural index. The median score for rated companies was 57 that year.
This year, 1,271 employers actively participated in the index survey, which now uses an expanded set of criteria to assess companies. A top score was achieved by 842 participants, or two-thirds of respondents.
Yet, the recent wave of legislation targeting LGBTQ individuals, in particular transgender youth, has once again forced the group to move the bar higher for companies that wish to achieve the status of “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality.”
One company that claims this title is the Chicago-based financial services firm Morningstar, which has maintained a top score in the index since 2018.
“We’re proud Morningstar has earned designation as among the ‘Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality’ for five years in a row, and we certainly aspire to keep the streak going,” said David Williams, chief design officer for Morningstar and executive sponsor of the Out@Morningstar Employee Resource Group. “As a ratings agency ourselves, we recognize the power of ratings to drive transparency and accountability.”
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Morningstar pointed to its support for the Equality Act as further proof that it is committed to LGBTQ equality beyond its own walls. If passed by Congress, the Equality Act would extend federal protection from discrimination and segregation to LGBTQ individuals.
But the change to the index also comes at a time when the corporate world has come under increased scrutiny for its alleged duplicity when it comes to advancing LGBTQ equality, particularly in the political realm.
Earlier this year, the Human Rights Campaign deducted 25 points from Fox Corp.’s index score of 100 following Fox News’ coverage of Florida’s controversial Parental Rights in Education bill, dubbed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
“Fox News has a history of sharing misinformation and disinformation about the LGBTQ+ community,” Aryn Fields, the organization’s senior press secretary, told Deadline at the time. “We can no longer allow Fox Corporation to maintain its score if Fox News personalities and contributors continue to deny the existence of transgender people, minimize the violence transgender individuals face, refer to parents of LGBTQ+ youth as perverts, or equate leaders of LGBTQ+ diversity and inclusion efforts with sex offenders.”
Beyond the Human Rights Campaign, organizers of Pride events have also reconsidered their relationships with corporate sponsors who make campaign contributions to politicians advancing legislation that, advocates say, would harm the LGBTQ community. Last month, Pride Northwest in Portland, Oregon, rejected sponsorship money from JPMorgan Chase after an investigation by Popular Information revealed that the firm made political contributions to anti-LGBTQ politicians through its corporate PAC.
JPMorgan Chase is among the 842 employers that achieved a top score in the 2022 index. But it is far from the only large corporation to finance the campaigns of anti-LGBTQ politicians, according to Popular Information.
In a statement to NBC News, JPMorgan Chase affirmed its “unwavering commitment to members of the LGBT+ community” and stated that the company “continues to promote an inclusive society where everyone feels welcomed, equal and included.”
“In communities across the United States, LGBT+ people and their families are facing barriers to, and erosion of, equal rights and protections,” a spokesperson for the global financial services company said. “JPMorgan Chase opposes discrimination in any form, including homophobia and transphobia, as well as any public policies which could harm our employees, customers and the communities where we do business.”
While no one company spurred Human Rights Campaign to update the index, the organization maintains that the change aligns with the demands of employees and customers who support LGBTQ equality.
“Employees who see their company giving to extremist politicians, who see products being sold by their company that refute their existence, who hear lawmakers paint them as villains and are met by only silence from their companies, want ‘Best Place to Work’ to mean more,” Madison wrote in The Advocate. “We do too.”
Gaming giant EA has told staff that the company will not publicly defend trans rights or abortion rights at a company-wide meeting.
The gaming publication Kotaku reported that it had seen and verified a transcript of the town hall meeting on Tuesday (24 May), which allowed employees to raise issues with senior management.
Employees had called on EA, the gaming company behind FIFA and The Sims, to make a public statement on the leaked Supreme Court draft opinionwhich showed that the court is poised to strip constitutional abortion rights from US citizens, and on the wave of anti-trans legislation sweeping America,specifically legislation in Texas which classes gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth as “child abuse”.
But according to the transcript, and despite publicly supporting the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd, staff were told that “being an inclusive company means being inclusive of all those points of view”.
Chief people officer Mala Singh reportedly said: “The thing about the world today is there is a lot of division, we know this right, we see it every single day, but the thing that unites us is that we’re all here to make amazing games and experiences for our players, and that is how we have the most positive impact on the world.
“These things are hard and they’re personal and we all have our own perspectives and sometimes we won’t speak, and that will be upsetting and I understand that, we really do.”
Instead, Singh reportedly told EA employees to make use of the gaming company’s “healing circles” to process their feelings about trans and abortion rights.
An EA employee told Kotaku that “healing circles” are group mental health sessions centred around specific issues, which are made available to staff as part of the company’s healthcare benefits.
“I know these have been tough issues, whether it’s the shootings that happened recently in the US, the Roe v Wade issues, these are hard,” Singh said.
“And so, one of the other things you’re going to see is we’re going to be making some more healing circles available through Modern Health.”
In a statement to the publication, EA corporate communications director Lacey Haines said: “We’re not going to comment further on the global town hall, as that is a company confidential forum.
“That said, we work to create an environment where our employees can talk about complex issues in our world today. We do this in a number of ways, from town halls to Slack discussions, group dialogues, surveys, and more.
“From all of that, we recognise these topics are deeply personal, and we know that there are many strong opinions, and some will be disappointed when we say that we’re not making public statements because we’re focused on the ways we can support our people around the world as their employer.
“That is what we’re doing, in this case, making sure that people have access to the healthcare benefits we provide as a company, even if those aren’t available locally.”
EA told PinkNews that Singh had told employees that the company was “working with our US healthcare provider to determine how we can expand our benefits to include travel support for any covered services where access is limited in an employee’s region, including reproductive services, gender-affirming care and others”.
A married gay couple has filed a federal complaint against New York City because the city’s health insurance doesn’t cover in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures for male same-sex couples.
Corey Briskin, 33, and Nicholas Maggipinto, 36, were married in 2016. They want to have a child using IVF and a surrogate. However, they can’t afford to do so without their health insurance covering a portion of the costs.
IVF procedures can run tens of thousands of dollars, and the surrogate’s time and labor (which isn’t typically covered by health insurance) can cost $100,000 or more. Additionally, Maggipinto has a six-figure student loan debt.
So the couple tried to use Briskin’s health insurance, a benefit he earns as an employee of the city of New York. However, the couple were told they were ineligible for coverage.
The city’s insurance limits IVF coverage to employees or spouses who are “infertile,” that is, unable to get pregnant through heterosexual intercourse or intrauterine insemination. This policy covers women, heterosexual couples and lesbian couples, but not gay male couples.
As such, the city’s policy discriminates on the basis of sex and sexual orientation, violating the state’s anti-discrimination law and Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, the couple argued in its complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
New York state law specifically directs insurance providers that cover more than 100 workers to cover at least three cycles of IVF for all insured people, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation, the couples’ EEOC filing notes.
“I think what we have here is an old paradigm of what families should look like,” Maggipinto said. “You have policymakers who think a family consists of a man and a woman and two and a half children…. But that’s not what my family will look like.”
The couple now wants the policy changed so that they and other male couples can afford to have children. They also hope the complaint could help encourage insurance providers to cover IVF for male couples across the nation.
A city spokesperson said it would review the couple’s complaint once it was received.
