What Do These Minnesota Companies Have in Common?

• 3M
• Ameriprise Financial
• Best Buy
• Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota
• Cargill
• Dorsey  & Whitney
• Feagre & Benson
• General Mills
• Robbins, Kaplan, Miller
• Supervalu
• US Bancorp
• United Health Group

Aside from being headquartered in Minnesota, every one of these organizations received a 100% rating in the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index. Many others, like Target are in the 85% to 95% range. This means that they are fully proactive in working with the LGBT community. And, yes, that includes the "T"s who are provided with transgender inclusive health insurance.

What people like Andy Parrish (who is with NOM's Minnesota franchise)  and Brian Brown never seem to get is that championing equality for LGBT citizens and taxpayers is the norm     not the exception. To attract the best talent, corporations know that they must be gay friendly. Moreover, there are far more people with a beloved LBGT family member than there are Christian or Catholic fundamentalists who seek to impose their religious beliefs on everyone else. In other words, if 45,000 people sign a petition to dump Starbucks, the company knows that far more people will be loyal to the brand because of their stand for equality.

Last year, General Mills had revenues of $15 billion. Equality is fully woven into their corporate culture. A few disgruntled Christian zealots? Pffft.

By the way, to achieve a 100% in the HRC CEI:

• Prohibits Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation (15 points)
• Prohibits Discrimination Based on Gender Identity or Expression (15 points)
• Offers Partner Health/Medical Insurance (15 points)
• Has Parity Across Other “Soft” Benefits for Partners (10 points)
• Offers Transgender-Inclusive Health Insurance Coverage (10 points)
• Firm-wide Organizational Competency Programs (10 points)
• Has Employer-Supported Employee Resource Group OR Firm-Wide Diversity Council (10 points)
• Positively Engages the External LGBT Community (15 points) (partial credit of 5 points given for less than 3 efforts)
• Responsible Citizenship Employers will have 25 points deducted from their score for a large-scale official or public anti-LGBT blemish on their recent records (-25 points)

 Related:

• NOM: Why stop at coffee and cereal?