For the past decade a proposal to add sexual orientation and gender identity to ExxonMobil's official equal employment opportunity policy has been voted down by the oil company's shareholders. At the most recent vote more shareholders than ever voiced support for the protections -- but the proposal still failed.
The Human Rights Campaign announced that 39.3% of shares voted in favor of the new policy this year, compared to 8.2% in 2000. Before merging with Exxon in 1999, Mobil included sexual orientation in its equal employment opportunity policy , but the wording was removed when ExxonMobil was formed. Since then, support for adding sexual orientation and gender identity to ExxonMobil's policy has grown, but not by enough to make it official policy. Meanwhile, 85% of Fortune 500 companies include sexual orientation in their nondiscrimination policies -- all Fortune 50 companies have it as part of their official policy -- and more than 35% 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 their nondiscrimination policy and is stuck in the ever-shrinking minority of businesses that don't offer domestic-partner benefits," Joe Solmonese, Human Rights Campaign president, said in a release. "While the rest of corporate America recognizes and respects the diversity of their workforce, ExxonMobil continues to resist the most basic protections that should be afforded to all Americans."
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