By Genny Hom-Franzen Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is one of the country’s top destinations when it comes to food, fun and sun, and it is also the site of the 14th Annual National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce International Business & Leadership Conference at the Fort Lauderdale Marriott Harbor Beach Resort and Spa. The gathering
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Team Cargill made a strong showing earlier this summer at the Twin Cities Pride Parade in Minneapolis and did not go unnoticed. “You know you’re in the Midwest when Cargill employees march with farm equipment,” joked one Twitter user, apparently impressed with the massive fertilizer spreader that followed the company’s delegation. The Minneapolis Pride
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The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, praised the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for its July 16 ruling affirming that it considers employment discrimination based on sexual orientation to be prohibited under the sex discrimination provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. “Discrimination has
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Affinity Inc Magazine — the nation’s foremost quarterly publication dedicated to the success of LGBT business equality — launched its first-ever spinoff magazine, AIM Digital, this summer. The new online bimonthly publication is available at AffinityIncMagazine.com and caters to the LGBTQ business leader’s and business owner’s perspective of the journey from equality to equity. AIM
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By Genny Hom-Franzen Grace Figueredo, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Aetna In 1995, Aetna Inc. was one of the first companies to set up domestic partner benefits. In 2009, it was the first major health benefits company to add gender reassignment procedures as a benefit for its employees and to add LGBT language to
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By DeVere Kutscher, Publisher, Affinity Inc Magazine. Happily, today more companies than ever, and even government agencies, welcome — and in fact seek out — lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender-owned businesses as part of their supply-chain diversity strategy. LGBT business enterprises are increasingly joining the ranks of other diverse suppliers such as women, veterans, Hispanic, disabled
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By Melissa Lowery Wassel Lewis, AFLAC Wassel Lewis, director of strategic sourcing at Aflac Inc., is on a mission to welcome more LGBT-, women- and minority-owned businesses to the insurance company’s supply chain. He is responsible for category management and sourcing activities, with an emphasis on information technology, operations and group insurance. He
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By Melissa Lowery Lockheed Martin Corp. has a long history of supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender inclusion. PRIDE, the company’s LGBT employee resource group, was founded in 1981 as an opportunity for LGBT and straight ally employees to seek ways to shape the future together. Lance Freedman, Lockheed Martin “At Lockheed Martin,
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Left to right: JP Benini, Elemental Path; Jessica Lawrence, New York Tech Meetup; and Stephenie Harris, Maven Cocktails StartOut, a nonprofit organization that promotes equality in the business world, hosted Demo Day + Networking in February in New York City. The day was a forum for the most innovative startups from the StartOut
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By Melissa Lowery Soon after enrolling at the University of Maryland, Hudson Taylor befriended lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students in his theatre classes and became increasingly aware of the pain caused by homophobic behavior. After years of witnessing the use of homophobic language and demeaning humor — especially in sports — he knew he
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