Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

The Post-Gazette picked up the rankings of local companies on the HRC Corporate Index for 2012.

HRC lauds K&L Gates as a best LGBT workplace

Downtown-based K&L Gates law firm got top marks as a best workplace for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees, according to a survey by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation in Washington, D.C., an LGBT advocacy and lobbying group. The organization’s Corporate Equality Index, available at http:/www.hrc.org, also ranked the following major Pittsburgh-based companies on a scale of 0-100: American Eagle Outfitters, 80; Bayer, 90; H.J. Heinz, 65; PNC Financial Services Group, 90; Reed Smith, 90; United States Steel, 0; and Wesco International, 15. K&L Gates’ number was 100.

sdf

A rough outline of the “new to 2012” criteria includes: transinclusive equal opportunity employment policy, transinclusive employment benefits – including health care, organizational LGBT competency – training, employee groups, public engagement and responsible citizenship.

I would say a score of 90 and above is good – so the above list would include 4 companies. I’ll have to plow through the full list to see what else is in there of interest to Pgh.

In the meantime, I’m glad the PG picked up on this. I’d like to see some attention to the issue of web filters for LGBT sites. Many are set to block sites with words like “lesbian” or “gay” as potentially harmful b/c of stereotypes about sexual content. When approached, companies tend to open the sites on a case by case basis rather than address the larger issue. I think this is important. If employers permit personal browsing there’s no reason to exclude LGBT sites. There are legitimate work related reasons why they might be visited as well. A law clerk researching an LGBT legal issue. An HR Director looking for training materials. And so forth.

So good news with regard to companies participating and the local reporting. Not so good news that US Steel didn’t submit a response (hence the score of 0.) Also not so good news that Pennsylvania is general does not have more than a handful of companies on the 100 list. We are counting on corporate America to lead the way in bluishred Pennsylvania for our elected officials.

Is this worth a discussion with your employer?