Subscribe to Breaking NewsRuby-Sachs: HRC Gives Us Ten Worst Companies for LGBT Employees
The HRC runs a yearly assessment of over three hundred companies that employ over nine million people. It looks at the company’s policies regarding LGBT employees and determines those places that are safe and supportive. It also looks at the places that offer no protection to their LGBT employees. In these times, a focus on the bad companies is strategically smart. Economic downturns make boycotts scarier. So we need to be threatening this kind of negative action against discriminating companies.
Here are some companies that are good to look at for boycott efforts:
Auto Zone
Auto Zone does not provide same-sex partner benefits and does not prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender. If you’ve ever been in need of an affordable auto part, there are plenty of retailers competing for your business. Auto Zone should be off our list.
Cracker Barrel
I hate these places and think they are very depressing, but sometimes you are driving around that dead zone that often happens near airports and there’s nothing but a Cracker Barrel lying around. Keep moving. This company does not offer benefits, prevent descrimination based on gender and does not provide sensitivity training regarding sexual diversity.
Exxon
I have trouble finding a gas company I can trust. And Shell is definitely out of the picture because of their brutal slaughter of the Ogoni people in Nigeria. Well Exxon is also out. This company is the single worst LGBT employer on HRC’s list. Exxon does not prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity and does not provide spousal health benefits to same-sex partners.
Today, as you move about your home town. Think boycott. HRC gives us the information, now we have to do the action.
So BOYCOTT TIME FOLKS… make yourselves HEARD/FELT! Hopefully there are some very wealthy gays, even closeted ones, who can make an impact here if they wish.
Why are there only 3 companies listed here?
I went to HRC’s website and could NOT find the list of companies that were unfriendly to LGBT people. Apparently HRC wants to keep this a secret.
I’ve been boycotting Exxon since the Valdez affair back in the 80s. They have always been a greedy company run by Bush’s friends down in Texas. As for Cracker Barrel I stay away from them because their food is generally not healthy. Lots of real fatty foods, etc. Auto Zone I just would never use either as all our auto work/parts gets done at Toyota which is on our HRC list and I believe they will get thru this troubled time that they are now having. I believe that boycotts truly work. We all must be vigilant and stick to it!
We need to also boycott Chick-fil-A with their ultra conservative, ultra religious, homophobic owner and creater. He fought against gay rights and was against gay marriage. Let’s not forget! I have never eaten there and never will. Neither should any one else!
ExxonMobil brings shame to Dallas! We have other great employers here. ExxonMobil brings us shame.
Yeah,Ruby-Sachs you avoid Shell gas too. I’m so proud of you. Thanks for this update. I still can’t believe Cracker Barrel is still in hot water in excluding diversity training after 1990s hoopla. After all these years, I thought they would change. I can’t wait till Congress pass workplace non-discriminatory policy that will include sexual orientation and gender identity.
To engineer78. Are you serious. I love Chick-Fil-A. Well, damn. Thank you so much for that info. I had no idea. Bye,bye to them then. Urghhhh!
Corporate Equality Index 2010 Full Report http://www.hrc.org/documents/HRC_Corporate_Equality_Index_2010.pdf
The headline said 10 companies to watch out for–so why just 3 companies mentioned in article?
Sorry, but Chik-Fil-A and Cracker Barrel are delicious. I have been eating at both since I was a kid and don’t see myself stopping. Plus, the whole “boycotting Cracker Barrel” thing is sooooo 1991. They added sexual orientation to their anti-dicrimination policy in 2002. (and this was done via a majority vote by the company’s shareholders.)
And Chik-Fil-A, I mean you kinda know what you are getting. To this day they don’t operate business on Sundays. And, I remember as a kid getting their little children’s bible stories as the kid’s meal toy! I hated the “toy”, but their chicken nuggets are amazing. Sorry, I guess I just can’t get excited about these frivolous boycotts.
Doesn’t look like I’d shop at these places in the first place.
I get my auto stuff from Walmart or the dealership; the only Exxon Mobil station that I know of is in the middle of nowhere and I avoid Shell since they give really bad service (I use either Valero, Flying J, or Chevron); and I’ve never actually seen a Cracker Barrel before. Chik-Fil-A is the only place that I might have gone to, but I only know where one of them is (University of Houston) and all their food is just more unhealthy stuff anyway (which I’ve been avoiding).
What HRC misses here is the company that looks good on paper, but hides what really goes on inside their big box. What about the company that moves their GLBTQ employees to places non-GLBTQ would never go {the only way you can become manager is to move here}? Or moves their GLBTQ people out of their HDQ corporate store so not to “offend” anyone? What about the company that let’s one GLBTQ in the VP ranks only because he’s a uncle tom, non threatening, and lost his integrity long time ago with the heads of state, but keeps the other GLBTQ with integrity from rising in its ranks, because that GLBTQ person might be threatening to “others” {As in: You never hire someone who might be smarter then you, because they might be after your job, threat.}? They say the best place for a Klansmen to hide is in plain sight, looking squeaky clean and mighty white.
I avoid Walmart because it’s in business to put everyone else out of business. Walmart is the death of the mom and pop stores, the death of the business centers of small towns.
I go to Walmart as a last resort only. The cheap-looking clothes at Walmart downgrade the appearance of a local population.
I have gone to Cracker Barrel after it changed. They added sexual orientation to their anti-dicrimination policy in 2002. (and this was done via a majority vote by the company’s shareholders.)
While it’s not my everyday diet, the food is delicious, I enjoy the country style appearance, can pick up great gift ideas from their store, can get DVDs of my favorite TV programs of years ago, like the porch with the rocking chairs,etc. That’s not depressing. Walmart is depressing.
As for Chick-fil-A, I have no problem with the owner having a spiritual life. People have a right to a personal and private faith life. I don’t agree however with passing out scripture of any faith to try to convert people to a faith. But if it’s on the walls of the place, then you just take it for granted that’s the ambiance and the culture of the place and of the owner and you go knowing what’s there. But if he/she is a bigot, then I don’t go. Heck my local yarn store is run by an observant Jew. She closes her store on Saturdays (the Jewish Sabbath). She is not a bigot.
Exxon-Mobil I avoid. Used to be the most expensive gas station in any town. And Exxon nixed any further same-sex partner of employee benefits of Mobil while still honoring the ones that existed at Mobil before its acquisition by Exxon. Its reasoning told to me when I called was that Exxon follows the laws of the local countries where it operates as to whether or not it recognizes same-sex relationships.
There are other companies that are more up with the 21st century in that regard than Exxon-Mobil so I fill up my tank before a long trip so that I can avoid their gas stations in areas where it is the only choice. (as I have actually seen on various road trips I’ve taken)
And Dave W…you know it would take years to check out every last nook and cranny of every last company and to intensively investigate its employees and management to meet every bit of your criteria. So, it looks like every one is on her/his own to find what he/she can about where she/he does business or plans to do business. HRC’s model is not ideal because it was assembled by error-prone humans. David W, if we followed your reasoning to its conclusion every time, we wouldn’t ever spend a dollar and we would have nothing in the house, or nothing on our plate, because we’d be all bent and twisted with suspicion about every last purchase we made. The world is not perfect and not tailor-made and office politics exists in most any workplace, because human beings of an envious, jealous, hateful and discriminatory nature (thus requiring laws to be passed to try to keep some of that in check) might be in charge one year and replaced by very nice human beings some other year.
Human beings in all their imperfection are in charge and that will never change.
But I have stayed away from McDonalds and from Exxon-Mobil and don’t regret that. I just go on the best info I can find and live my life the best I can.
So if you won’t boycott because you are weak willed… when you do go to these disgusting places (disgusting in addition because of the greasy vile food they serve or their sexist service in general) Stir shit up when you do go… leave a note in the bathroom… “I gave homo head here.” Or write on your dollars!!! I’ve been doing this for years. Write QUEER MONEY and leave it as a tip…. or pay with that. Though if you are so weak willed you probably pay with a credit card.