Welcoming Workplaces - The Best Gay-Friendly Companies

A record number of Fortune 500 companies are offering protections to gay and lesbian workers and their spouses. As state and local government consider anti-gay ballot initiatives in 2005, companies are making their workplaces gay-friendlier.


The Advocate Magazine has put together it seventh annual list of ten great places for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) to work. Human Rights Commission (HRC) President Joe Solmonese says, "While LGBT people struggle for equality under the law, corporations are filling the gaps where government have left Americans vulnerable."


The Gap, with revenue of $16.3 billion and over 150,000 employees heads the list. With a Fortune 500 rating of 130 and HRC score of 100, the company has made donations to many gay and lesbian organizations. General Mills, bringing in $12.5 billion and boasting of 27,500 employees, added sexual orientation to its antidiscrimination policy in the early 1990s. Betty Crocker lent her name to the company's LGBT employees' group, Betty's Family (a General Mills twist on the phrase "Friends of Dorothy").


"This is a great company," says gay employee Lee Anderson, manager of state and local government relations at the Minnesota-based corporation and a member of Betty's Family since he started working at General Mills four years ago. General Mills also supports local and regional gay and lesbian groups and activities such as the Rainbow Families Conference.


A leader in asthma medications, GlaxoSmithKline, who former Olympian Florence Joyner ("FloJo) used to be a rep with her own program, has a revenue of $37.2 billion. With 100,000 employees, the company is based in the U.K. but its U.S. operations in Philadelphia and North Carolina are gay-friendly. In 2000 GlaxoSmithKline began offering benefits to same-sex couples and its North Carolina office has a popular support group for gay workers that holds social events and helps with relocation and other aspects of work and home life.