BellaFaith
09-21-2006, 01:06 AM
This Out and Equal report is very exciting!
What do you think?
Corporate dominoes
Posted by: "S. Stevens" stephaniekaystevens@yahoo.com stephaniekaystevens
Tue Sep 19, 2006 8:06 pm (PST)
The Advocate, CA, USA
Commentary
Corporate dominoes
The remarkable progress in corporate America's embrace and support
of its transgender workers shows the U.S. competitive spirit is
alive and well--and helping boost the T part of the LGBT rainbow
By Joanne Herman
An Advocate.com exclusive posted September 19, 2006
I'm interrupting my Transgender 101 Series to pass along some big
news for transgender people from this week's release of the 2006
Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index (CEI) and the Out and
Equal 2006 Workplace Summit in mid September.
HRC gave those of us attending the Out and Equal Summit a sneak peak
at the 2006 CEI results released on September 19. The annual CEI is
a tool to measure how equitably companies are treating their gay,
lesbian, bisexual, and transgender employees, consumers, and
investors. Scoring 100% each year is rapidly becoming essential for
major employers.
This year, HRC raised the bar to include transgender parity in at
least one of five wellness benefits, and the results are exciting.
Of the 446 companies in the survey, a total of 303 companies offer
at least one of the specified benefits for their transgender
employees, and a staggering 67 offer all five. More impressively,
28% of the employers provide health benefits for trans-related
surgical procedures.
HRC told us that some companies are surprised to find that their
health insurance coverage excludes gender identity-related
treatments. The language is often in the master policy because it is
the "standard" offering from the insurance company. Once employers
learn this, it is often only a matter of demanding that their
insurers remove the exclusion.
The exclusion is standard because of fears over the cost of
inclusion. But Mary Ann Horton, in her eye-opening Out and Equal
session on "The Cost of Transgender Heath Benefits," showed
convincingly that the cost is considerably less than that of
domestic partner coverage, even when taking into account a generous
margin of error.
Horton backed up her calculations with the experience of the City
and Country of San Francisco, which has provided comprehensive
transgender health coverage since 2001. Their actuaries knew there
were 27 transgender municipal employees, and therefore geared up to
pay for 35 surgeries each year. But they missed the fact that some
transgender people never have surgery and those that do generally
only have it once in a lifetime. Actual cost experience has been no
worse than that for gall bladder removal or heart surgery.
Last year, Raytheon made history when it became the first of the
major aerospace and defense contractors to add gender identity and
expression to its employment nondiscrimination policy, a requirement
to score 100% on the CEI. This year, Raytheon is joined at 100% by
three of their competitors. Clearly, there is a domino effect going
on out there. Raytheon has now upped the ante by announcing at Out
and Equal that they are the first corporate sponsor of this year's
Southern Comfort Conference, probably the largest transgender
conference in the U.S.
Certainly, the Out and Equal Workplace Summit has a lot of
programming on other topics of interest to corporate LGBT employee
resource groups, but transgender inclusion was a definite theme this
year. The theme was set in the opening plenary by the head of
GlaxoSmithKline's HIV-related business and the doctor who discovered
AZT, each expressing their own heartfelt pride that GSK had just
added gender identity and expression to its nondiscrimination
policy. Neither stumbled once when talking about the importance of
transgender inclusion, as others do when giving it lip service. GSK
clearly gets it.
Trans inclusion in the workplace was one of the topics covered by a
panel executive directors from national LGBT organizations. Mara
Keisling, Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender
Equality, sat on the panel as an equal with Neil Giuliano of GLAAD,
Kate Kendell of NCLR, Alexander Robinson of the National Black
Justice Coalition and Joe Solmonese of HRC. It was very clear from
their remarks that are all collaborating around inclusion.
Another well-attended feature session, this one sponsored by Intel,
featured Andrea James and Calpernia Addams discussing their
experience consulting to the movie Transamerica and their efforts to
change Hollywood's portrayal of trans people, a key step toward
acceptance by Americans at large. Other sessions covered corporate
transition guidelines as well as training for those who wish to do
transgender-inclusion training in their companies.
But I was most struck by a session led by Dr. Louise Young, the
Raytheon senior software engineer and self-described "longtime
lesbian activist" who founded the Raytheon GLBTA. Louise explained
her evolution from her initial realization that trans people are
very much part of the LGBT community, to spearheading Raytheon's
efforts to add gender identity and expression to the EEO policy, and
finally to her pride in serving recently as the "subject matter
expert" for a Raytheon division wanting to understand a colleague's
impending transition from male to female.
Louise Young is not transgender, but she is a capital-A trans ally.
She was not the only one at the summit. I met several nontransgender
corporate representatives who genuinely want to embrace transgender
people at their companies and realize that they need to understand
us in order to do so. Attendees were full of questions for all of
the trans presenters at the summit—and even for me, just another
attendee. It's clear that corporate America is starting to get
the "T." How is your company doing?
Herman is the first transgender member of the boards of The Point
Foundation, the national LGBT scholarship fund, and of Gay and
Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, the New England-based LGBT legal
rights organization that filed and argued the court case that
brought same-sex marriage to Massachusetts. She is also a member of
the advisory board of the National Center for Transgender Equality.
Advocate.com © 2006 PlanetOut Inc. All Rights Reserved. :lol: :lol: :lol: :D :D
What do you think?
Corporate dominoes
Posted by: "S. Stevens" stephaniekaystevens@yahoo.com stephaniekaystevens
Tue Sep 19, 2006 8:06 pm (PST)
The Advocate, CA, USA
Commentary
Corporate dominoes
The remarkable progress in corporate America's embrace and support
of its transgender workers shows the U.S. competitive spirit is
alive and well--and helping boost the T part of the LGBT rainbow
By Joanne Herman
An Advocate.com exclusive posted September 19, 2006
I'm interrupting my Transgender 101 Series to pass along some big
news for transgender people from this week's release of the 2006
Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index (CEI) and the Out and
Equal 2006 Workplace Summit in mid September.
HRC gave those of us attending the Out and Equal Summit a sneak peak
at the 2006 CEI results released on September 19. The annual CEI is
a tool to measure how equitably companies are treating their gay,
lesbian, bisexual, and transgender employees, consumers, and
investors. Scoring 100% each year is rapidly becoming essential for
major employers.
This year, HRC raised the bar to include transgender parity in at
least one of five wellness benefits, and the results are exciting.
Of the 446 companies in the survey, a total of 303 companies offer
at least one of the specified benefits for their transgender
employees, and a staggering 67 offer all five. More impressively,
28% of the employers provide health benefits for trans-related
surgical procedures.
HRC told us that some companies are surprised to find that their
health insurance coverage excludes gender identity-related
treatments. The language is often in the master policy because it is
the "standard" offering from the insurance company. Once employers
learn this, it is often only a matter of demanding that their
insurers remove the exclusion.
The exclusion is standard because of fears over the cost of
inclusion. But Mary Ann Horton, in her eye-opening Out and Equal
session on "The Cost of Transgender Heath Benefits," showed
convincingly that the cost is considerably less than that of
domestic partner coverage, even when taking into account a generous
margin of error.
Horton backed up her calculations with the experience of the City
and Country of San Francisco, which has provided comprehensive
transgender health coverage since 2001. Their actuaries knew there
were 27 transgender municipal employees, and therefore geared up to
pay for 35 surgeries each year. But they missed the fact that some
transgender people never have surgery and those that do generally
only have it once in a lifetime. Actual cost experience has been no
worse than that for gall bladder removal or heart surgery.
Last year, Raytheon made history when it became the first of the
major aerospace and defense contractors to add gender identity and
expression to its employment nondiscrimination policy, a requirement
to score 100% on the CEI. This year, Raytheon is joined at 100% by
three of their competitors. Clearly, there is a domino effect going
on out there. Raytheon has now upped the ante by announcing at Out
and Equal that they are the first corporate sponsor of this year's
Southern Comfort Conference, probably the largest transgender
conference in the U.S.
Certainly, the Out and Equal Workplace Summit has a lot of
programming on other topics of interest to corporate LGBT employee
resource groups, but transgender inclusion was a definite theme this
year. The theme was set in the opening plenary by the head of
GlaxoSmithKline's HIV-related business and the doctor who discovered
AZT, each expressing their own heartfelt pride that GSK had just
added gender identity and expression to its nondiscrimination
policy. Neither stumbled once when talking about the importance of
transgender inclusion, as others do when giving it lip service. GSK
clearly gets it.
Trans inclusion in the workplace was one of the topics covered by a
panel executive directors from national LGBT organizations. Mara
Keisling, Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender
Equality, sat on the panel as an equal with Neil Giuliano of GLAAD,
Kate Kendell of NCLR, Alexander Robinson of the National Black
Justice Coalition and Joe Solmonese of HRC. It was very clear from
their remarks that are all collaborating around inclusion.
Another well-attended feature session, this one sponsored by Intel,
featured Andrea James and Calpernia Addams discussing their
experience consulting to the movie Transamerica and their efforts to
change Hollywood's portrayal of trans people, a key step toward
acceptance by Americans at large. Other sessions covered corporate
transition guidelines as well as training for those who wish to do
transgender-inclusion training in their companies.
But I was most struck by a session led by Dr. Louise Young, the
Raytheon senior software engineer and self-described "longtime
lesbian activist" who founded the Raytheon GLBTA. Louise explained
her evolution from her initial realization that trans people are
very much part of the LGBT community, to spearheading Raytheon's
efforts to add gender identity and expression to the EEO policy, and
finally to her pride in serving recently as the "subject matter
expert" for a Raytheon division wanting to understand a colleague's
impending transition from male to female.
Louise Young is not transgender, but she is a capital-A trans ally.
She was not the only one at the summit. I met several nontransgender
corporate representatives who genuinely want to embrace transgender
people at their companies and realize that they need to understand
us in order to do so. Attendees were full of questions for all of
the trans presenters at the summit—and even for me, just another
attendee. It's clear that corporate America is starting to get
the "T." How is your company doing?
Herman is the first transgender member of the boards of The Point
Foundation, the national LGBT scholarship fund, and of Gay and
Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, the New England-based LGBT legal
rights organization that filed and argued the court case that
brought same-sex marriage to Massachusetts. She is also a member of
the advisory board of the National Center for Transgender Equality.
Advocate.com © 2006 PlanetOut Inc. All Rights Reserved. :lol: :lol: :lol: :D :D