HRC Releases Latest Corporate Equality Index

The Human Rights Campaign just released the 2016 edition of its annual Corporate Equality Index, which showcases some of the nation's most LGBT-inclusive companies, and a record 407 major businesses managed to receive a perfect score of 100 and the title of Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality.

This year's CEI is also notable in that it raised the requirements for companies to nail a perfect score by requiring that they have international policies in place that prevent their overseas workers from being discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity.

"These employers uphold the tenets of nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity throughout the many arms of their U.S. and international business practices," said HRC president Chad Griffin in a statement.

A total of 851 businesses were ranked in the index, which seeks to quantify the commitment to providing good working environments. The CEI rates companies on policies that help protect LGBT people from discrimination but also ones that offer them partner benefits, resources, and public support.

Among the many big names that earned a perfect score from HRC are Bank of America, Google, Target, IKEA, and Apple, whose gay CEO, Tim Cook, is known for his passionate advocacy in regard to diversity and inclusion.

Some well-known retailers, including Bed Bath & Beyond, Big Lots, Dollar Tree, and Foot Locker, scored poorly on the CEI, failing to provide employees protections from like gender- and sexuality-based discrimination while also failing to offer trans-inclusive health insurance options and resource groups.

Still, this year's index shows incredible improvement among U.S. corporations, as only 13 businesses earned top marks in 2002, when the first CEI was first compiled, and only 189 businesses as recently 2012.

"We have so much more work left to do," said Griffin. "But thanks to private sector successes, we have a roadmap to achieve even greater equality across the U.S. and throughout the world."

View the entire 2016 Corporate Equality Index at the Human Rights Campaign's website here.