From the Daily Record

Marriott Among State’s Gay-Friendly Employers

By SOFIA KOSMETATOS
Daily Record Business Writer

A report card on corporate America’s treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees shows Bethesda-based lodging company Marriott International Inc. among the highest scorers, with a score of 86 out of 100.

The Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index rated 379 companies this year, four of which are Maryland-based: Marriott, defense giant Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, utility Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. of Baltimore and Vertis Inc., a marketing firm based in Baltimore. Allegheny Energy was also rated as a Maryland-based company, although the utility has relocated its headquarters to Pittsburgh.

Lockheed Martin scored a 71. BGE and Vertis each scored a 43, while Allegheny scored a 57.

Other companies not headquartered in Maryland but which have a significant number of jobs in the state included New York-based Citigroup and Verizon Communications, Inc. They scored 100 and 86, respectively.

The Human Rights Campaign, the largest national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender advocacy group, evaluates Fortune 500 and the largest Forbes 200 privately held companies based on responses to a survey. The group also examines any company with at least 500 employees that asks to be rated or for which it has enough information.

This is the third year the organization has conducted this survey, which it said has encouraged more companies to do more for gay employees.

Fifty-six companies received a score of 100 on the 2004 Corporate Equality Index, twice as many as 2003 and more than four times the number of perfect scores in 2002, according to the report. The companies that earned 100 can use a seal provided by the campaign in advertising and other marketing tools.

The criteria on which companies were judged included whether the companies offer domestic partnership benefits, including health and life insurance. The campaign also examined the written nondiscrimination policies of companies for references to sexual orientation, as well as diversity training, resource groups and community involvement with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender organizations.

According to the report, companies are using the index “as a roadmap to equal treatment for GLBT Americans in the workplace and marketplace. The index also has had a profound impact on many workplaces and has spurred significant change among companies that initially had been slow to adopt more equitable policies. As this year’s report shows, hundreds of companies have responded by improving policies and raising their scores.”

But Lockheed Martin’s decisions were guided by internal influences such as a diversity council formed two years ago, said David Waller, director of human resources communications at the company. The council, led by President and Chief Executive Robert J. Stevens, led to initiatives like domestic partnership benefits. The company started offering these benefits to employees in July 2003.

“We’re certainly cognizant of what’s going on with the world Š but we very much wanted to look at ourselves,” he said. The decisions include a diversity maturity model to measure the success of diversity initiatives.

The company employs about 13,000 people in the entire Washington region, including 6,500 in Maryland, and about 130,000 worldwide.

Vertis has offered domestic partner benefits since 2000 and has had “very together” nondiscrimination policies, said James Foley, a director in the human resources department. The company employs about 180 people in Maryland and about 8,000 worldwide. Foley was surprised the company’s score was not higher.

“I don’t think surveys or rankings like this,” he said, “drive us in any particular way.”

http://www.mddailyrecord.com/archives/5_75_tuesday/businessnews/160227-1.html