Congratulations to the 2020 LGBTQ Business Equality Excellence Award recipients

By BEQ Pride Editorial Team

The Business Equality Network announces our fourth 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 supporting full equality for the LGBTQ community through business and economic inclusion.

Our 2020 list of 161 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, 80 are part of HRC’s Business Coalition for the Equality Act. 17 are part of the Billion Dollar Roundtable whose spend includes LGBTBE® among other diverse spend. While three are prior recipients of our BEQ Pride Eminence Award. These companies understand the importance of a federal legal standard that guarantees all employees the same rights and protections — no matter where they live.

But, it doesn’t end there. Our journey to full LGBTQ equality will not be successful without specifically addressing the economic disparities and systemic disenfranchisement faced by so many in the LGBTQ community. Our engine of economic prosperity is in danger of running out of fuel. The solution is full engagement with the diverse business community, including those in the LGBTQ community.

A 2020 commemorative plaque is available in lieu of a public event. A portion of the proceeds from the sales will be donated to charity.

When it comes to business equality and access to equity, so much depends on how we engage people. Enabling the benefits of Belonging through inclusive sourcing — finding new routes to talent, new routes to market and, most importantly, the discovery of new markets — is the key to truly unlocking the promise of Diversity and Inclusion.
By 2045, the minority U.S. population will be the majority and the need to realize the true benefits of Diversity means we must address Inclusion and Belonging now. More than a seat at the table, the diverse business community wants inclusion and belonging to enable access to equity — a piece of the pie.

The injection of new ideas, different voices and perspectives and the creation of safe spaces that don’t sacrifice sacred spaces and dedicated spaces means we will have the ability to truly benefit from the Fourth Industrial Revolution — 4IR.

The technological advances promised by 4IR and Industry 4.0 are only as good as the people behind them. Laws, regulations, policies and practices are intended to address structural or systemic inequalities, especially in business — but, they only get us part way on our journey. People change hearts and minds, and people decide when and where to extend opportunity and access because it makes sense — business sense.

BEQ is dedicated to bridging the gap between efforts in the name of diversity, equality, inclusion and belonging and the need for equity — a chance to create and access a new pie for the diverse business community. To that end, our 2020 Eminence Recipient will demonstrate a significant progress toward providing access to equity.

We will announce the 2020 Corporate Eminence Award Recipient in August 2020. The application period opens March 30 and ends June 15, 2020, at 8:00 p.m. ET.

BEQ Pride 2020 LGBTQ Business Equality Excellence Awards

A

Accenture^
ADP^
AIG
Airbnb^
Akerman LLP
Altria Group^
Ameren
American Airlines*^
Amgen
Anthem
Apple$^
AT&T*$^
AXA

B

Barclays
Barilla
Baxter International
Bayer^
Blue Cross Blue Shield Massachusetts
Booz Allen Hamilton^
Boston Scientific^
BP America
Bristol-Myers Squibb^
Brown Advisory

C

Caesars Entertainment^
Capgemini
Capital Group
Capital One^
Cargill^
CBRE
CDW$
CenturyLink
Chevron^
Chubb
CIGNA
Citigroup^
Citizens Bank
Citrix Systems^
Coca-Cola^
Colgate-Palmolive
Comcast NBCUniversal$
ConocoPhillips
Corteva Agriscience
Cox Enterprises^
CSAA Insurance Group^
Cummins$^+

D

Danone North America^
Dell$^
Diageo^
Dominion Energy
Dow Chemical Co.^
Dun & Bradstreet

E

Eaton^
Ecolab^
Eli Lilly & Co.
Ernst & Young*^

F

Facebook^

G

Galloway, Johnson, Tompkins, Burr & Smith PLC
GE Appliances
Genentech
General Mills^
GlaxoSmithKline
Goldman Sachs

H

Hallmark Cards
Health Care Service Corp (HCSC)
Hewlett Packard Enterprises^
Highmark Health
Hilton^
Humana
Hyatt Hotels^

I

IBM*$^
Intel*^
Interpublic Group
Intuit
Iron Mountain^

J

John Hancock Financial Services^
Johnson & Johnson$^
JLL
JPMorgan Chase & Co.*$^

K

Kaiser Permanente$^
Kelley Drye & Warren LLP
Kellogg Company^
KPMG^
Kroger$

L

L Brands
Laboratory Corp
Liberty Mutual
Lockheed Martin
L’Oreal USA
Lowenstein Sandler

M

Major League Baseball (MLB)
Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals
ManpowerGroup^
Marathon Petroleum Corp
Marriott International^
Marsh & McLennan Companies^
MassMutual^
Mastercard^
Medtronic^
Merck$^
MetLife
MGM Resorts International^
Microsoft$^
MillerCoors Brewing^
Mondelez International^
Morgan Stanley^
Motorola*

N

Nationwide^
NBA
New York Life
Northrop Grumman^
Novartis

O

Office Depot^

P

PepsiCo^
Pfizer^
PG&E Corp$^+
PGA
The PNC Financial Services Group^
Principal
Proctor & Gamble$^
Prudential
Publicis Health
PricewaterhouseCoopers^

Q

Quest Diagnostics

R

RBC Wealth Management^
Retail Business Services
Reynolds American
Robert Half
Rockwell Automation^

S

Salesforce^
Sanofi
Shell Oil Co.
Sodexo^
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Southwest Airlines^
Standard Insurance Co.
Staples
State Farm
SunTrust Banks

T

T-Mobile USA^
Target^
TD Bank^
Teva Pharmaceutical
The Hartford
TIAA^
Toyota$
Turner Construction^

U

Uber^
Unilever^
United Airlines^
United Technologies
UPS^
USAA
US Tennis Association

V

Verizon$^
Viacom

W

The Walt Disney Company
Warner Media
Wells Fargo*^
Willis Towers Watson
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts*^

X

Xcel Energy

*NGLCC founding member | $Billion Dollar Roundtable member | ^Business Coalition for Equality Act signee | +BEQ Pride Corporate Eminence Award recipient