More ExxonMobil
shareholders than ever voted to support a resolution to
add sexual orientation and gender identity as categories to
the company's nondiscrimination policy, though they
were unable to win a full majority.
More ExxonMobil
shareholders than ever voted to support a resolution to
add sexual orientation and gender identity as categories to
the company's nondiscrimination policy, though they
were unable to win a full majority. The percentage of
shareholders in favor of the policy change has grown of
the last nine years, with 39.6% of shareholders voting in
favor of the policy this year, according to the Human
Rights Campaign. This year's vote was the first to
include gender identity.
"ExxonMobil
continues to have the dubious distinction of being the
only Fortune 50 company that refuses to add sexual
orientation and gender identity to its
nondiscrimination policy and is stuck in the
ever-shrinking minority of businesses that don't offer
domestic-partner benefits," said HRC Foundation
president Joe Solmonese. "It is irresponsible for
ExxonMobil to ignore overwhelming shareholder support
and not to join the majority of companies that provide equal
protections and benefits to all families."
ExxonMobil's top
competitors -- BP. Chevron, Dow Chemical, DuPont,
and Shell Oil -- all have nondiscrimination statements
inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity.
ExxonMobil also does not provide domestic-partnership
benefits to employees, while a majority of Fortune 500
companies has done so since 2006.
HRC attended
ExxonMobil’s annual shareholder meeting in Dallas to
present the shareholder resolution, which was filed
with the New York City comptroller and New York City
Pension Funds.
Before its 1999
merger with Exxon, Mobil's equal employment opportunity
policy included sexual orientation and offered its employees
domestic-partner benefits. Two dozen members of Congress,
with thousands of stockholders and consumers, wrote to
ExxonMobil chairman Lee R. Raymond in December 1999 to
protest the policy reversals, according to HRC. The
next month, stockholders and activists protested at a
company facility in Houston, causing the facility to
close for the day. (The Advocate)
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