LGBTQ Rights

The only proposal to address LGBTQ rights, a new formulation, asks CorVel to report “detailing the potential risks associated with omitting ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ from its written equal employment opportunity (EEO) policy.” It points out the company current includes no explicit protections in its written EEO policy and contends this sends “mixed signals” to affected workers—who also face “inconsistent state policies, the absence of a federal law, and conflicting perspectives of federal entities. It notes, “In 2015, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) advised that LGBT individuals were protected under ‘sex’ by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. However, in June 2017, the Justice Department contested the EEOC’s guidance in an Amicus Brief to a US Court of Appeals stating explicitly that ‘Title VII does not reach discrimination based on sexual orientation.’” Shareholder resolutions historically helped persuade companies to adopt LGBTQ protections, with 30 resolutions filed as recently as 2012 and even more in earlier years. Despite assertions from some quarters that these protections may violate “religious liberties,” leading U.S. companies remain on the public record strongly supporting diversity in all its forms.

(See Conservatives, p. 75, for a proposal that indirectly argues against Intel’s policy supporting LGBTQ rights.)