2019 LGBTQ Business Equality Excellence Award Recipients

The Business Equality Network announces the third annual LGBTQ Business Equality Excellence Award. The Business Equality Network and the BEQ Pride editorial team are committed to the development and success of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer business community. We place special emphasis and acknowledge support for organizations and major employers that have made diverse and inclusive workplace, multicultural engagement, and supply chain diversity not just a matter of policy, but a matter of practice.

Once a year, we honor organizations that are fostering economic stability in the LGBTQ community through the fair treatment and inclusion of LGBTQ employees, suppliers, consumers and partners in business. These organizations are recognized for their demonstrated practice of Business Equality Excellence.

The Business Equality Excellence program allows us to bring attention to the need to align excellence in the workplace (based on the HRC’s Corporate Equality Index), marketplace (media and market presence showing LGBTQ engagement), supply chain (corporate partnership with NGLCC and membership in the Billion Dollar Roundtable) and philanthropy (engaging LGBTQ issues and charitable causes through monetary support). The program is about clearly identifying the business community and industry leaders engaged in the struggle for full equality for the LGBTQ community through business and economic inclusion.

Our 2019 list of 138 major corporations, employers and sports organizations have demonstrated their comprehensive commitment to LGBTQ equality. Simply put, our awardees routinely deliver an unmistakable message that the country and each state where they are headquartered cannot ignore — diversity and inclusion matter. Their increased visible, vocal and financial commitment to equality in the workforce, workplace, marketplace and supply chain of their respective organizations contributes to the economic climate locally, nationally and around the world.

Among this year’s recipients, 74 are part of HRC’s Business Coalition for the Equality Act. These companies understand the importance of a federal legal standard that guarantees all employees the same rights and protections — no matter where they live.

BEQ Pride will announce our 2019 Corporate Eminence Award Recipient in August 2019.

The Front Lines of LGBTQ Business Equality

* HRC’s Business Coalition for the Equality Act
♦ BDR Billion Dollar Round Table

Midwest

Principal Financial Group, Des Moines, IA
State Farm Group, Bloomington, IL
Health Care Service Corp., Chicago, IL
Hyatt Hotels Corp.*, Chicago, IL
JLL, Chicago, IL
MillerCoors LLC*, Chicago, IL
United Airlines*, Chicago, IL
Baxter International Inc., Deerfield, IL
W.W. Grainger Inc., Lake Forest, IL
Cummins Inc.* ♦, Columbus, IN
Anthem Inc., Indianapolis, IN
Eli Lilly & Co., Indianapolis, IN
Kellogg Co.*, Battle Creek, MI
General Motors Co.* ♦, Detroit, MI
Dow Chemical Co.*, The, Midland, MI
General Mills Inc.*, Minneapolis, MN
RBC Wealth Management*, Minneapolis, MN
Target Corp.*, Minneapolis, MN
U.S. Bancorp*, Minneapolis, MN
Xcel Energy Inc., Minneapolis, MN
Cargill Inc.*, Wayzata, MN
Mallinckrodt LLC, Hazelwood, MO
Hallmark Cards Inc., Kansas City, MO
Ameren Corp., St. Louis, MO
Kroger Co., The ♦, Cincinnati, OH
Procter & Gamble Co.*, Cincinnati, OH
L Brands Inc., Columbus, OH
Nationwide*, Columbus, OH
Rockwell Automation Inc.*, Milwaukee, WI

NorthEast

CIGNA Corp., Bloomfield, CT
Aetna Inc., Hartford, CT
Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., The, Hartford, CT
Diageo North America*, Norwalk, CT
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Boston, MA
Iron Mountain Inc.*, Boston, MA
John Hancock Financial Services Inc.*, Boston, MA
Liberty Mutual Group, Boston, MA
Boston Scientific Corp.*, Marlborough, MA
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co.*, Springfield, MA
Sanofi, Bridgewater, NJ
Merck* ♦, Kenilworth, NJ
Quest Diagnostics Inc., Lyndhurst, NJ
Johnson & Johnson* ♦, New Brunswick, NJ
Prudential Financial Inc., Newark, NJ
Wyndham Destinations*, Parsippany, NJ
ADP*, Roseland, NJ
Dun & Bradstreet Corp., The, Short Hills, NJ
Bayer U.S. LLC*, Whippany, NJ
IBM Corp.* ♦, Armonk, NY
Accenture*, New York, NY
AIG, New York, NY
AXA, New York, NY
Bank of New York Mellon Corp., The, New York, NY
Barclays, New York, NY
Citigroup Inc.*, New York, NY
Colgate-Palmolive Co., New York, NY
Ernst & Young LLP*, New York, NY
Interpublic Group of Companies Inc., New York, NY
JPMorgan Chase & Co.*, New York, NY
Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, New York, NY
KPMG LLP*, New York, NY
L’Oréal USA Inc., New York, NY
Major League Baseball, New York, NY
Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc., New York, NY
MetLife Inc., New York, NY
Morgan Stanley*, New York, NY
National Basketball Association, New York, NY
New York Life Insurance Co., New York, NY
Pfizer Inc.*, New York, NY
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP*, New York, NY
Publicis Inc., New York, NY
TIAA*, New York, NY
Turner Construction Co.*, New York, NY
Viacom Inc., New York, NY
Warner Media, New York, NY
Mastercard*, Purchase, NY
PepsiCo Inc.*, Purchase, NY
US Tennis Association, White Plains, NY
Chubb Ltd., Philadelphia, PA
PNC Financial Services Group Inc., The*, Pittsburgh, PA

South

Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), Washington, DC
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (DuPont)*, Wilmington, DE
TD Bank, N.A.*, Wilmington, DE
Office Depot Inc.*, Boca Raton, FL
Citrix Systems Inc.*, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Fidelity National Information Services Inc., Jacksonville, FL
PGA, Palm Beach Gardens, FL
Coca-Cola Co., The*, Atlanta, GA
Cox Enterprises Inc.*, Atlanta, GA
First Data Corp.*, Atlanta, GA
SunTrust Banks Inc., Atlanta, GA
United Parcel Service Inc.*, Atlanta, GA
Humana Inc., Louisville, KY
Galloway, Johnson, Tompkins, Burr & Smith PLC, New Orleans, LA
Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, MD
Marriott International Inc.*, Bethesda, MD
Sodexo Inc.*, Gaithersburg, MD
Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, Burlington, NC
GlaxoSmithKline LLC, Research Triangle Park, NC
AT&T Inc.* ♦, Dallas, TX
Southwest Airlines Co.*, Dallas, TX
American Airlines*, Fort Worth, TX
BP America Inc., Houston, TX
Capgemini America, INC, Houston, TX
Shell Oil Co., Houston, TX
Toyota Motor North America Inc. ♦, Plano, TX
Dell Technologies Inc.* ♦, Round Rock, TX
United Services Automobile Association, San Antonio, TX
Northrop Grumman Corp.*, Falls Church, VA
Capital One Financial Corp.*, McLean, VA
Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. (Freddie Mac), McLean, VA
Hilton Inc.*, McLean, VA
Altria Group Inc.*, Richmond, VA
Dominion Energy, Richmond, VA

West

Walt Disney Co., The, Burbank, CA
Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Culver City, CA
Apple Inc.*, Cupertino, CA
CBRE Inc., Los Angeles, CA
Facebook Inc.*, Menlo Park, CA
Google Inc.*, Mountain View, CA
Intuit Inc., Mountain View, CA
Kaiser Permanente* ♦, Oakland, CA
Airbnb Inc.*, San Francisco, CA
PG&E Corp.* ♦, San Francisco, CA
Salesforce*, San Francisco, CA
Uber Technologies Inc.*, San Francisco, CA
Wells Fargo & Co.*, San Francisco, CA
Cisco Systems Inc.*, San Jose, CA
Chevron Corp.*, San Ramon, CA
Intel Corp.*, Santa Clara, CA
Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, CA
Amgen Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA
CSAA Insurance Group*, Walnut Creek, CA
Caesars Entertainment Corp.*, Las Vegas, NV
MGM Resorts International*, Las Vegas, NV
Standard Insurance Co., Portland, OR
T-Mobile USA Inc.*, Bellevue, WA
Microsoft Corp.* ♦, Redmond, WA