Companies quietly boost LGBT policies

It's no secret that companies have dialed back their reporting on diversity matters, but a new report suggests changes at least on LGBT policies only have been rhetorical.

You can read that study via this week's main story, linked below. I've also included links to a story about human rights concerns at GEO Group, a major contractor for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, and a look at the concerns of defense investors as the White House puts new policies in place.

Please follow me on LinkedIn and/or Bluesky. You can reach me at ross.kerber@thomsonreuters.com.

U.S. companies spent last year slashing references to their diversity, equity and inclusion programs after President Donald Trump came back into office promising to sweep aside such efforts. But a new report suggests many of the changes were mainly to stay under the radar.

In this year's edition of its Corporate Equality Index the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT advocacy group, found a 65 percent decline in the number of Fortune 500 companies that responded to the group's survey of their workplace practices. It covered issues such as whether they provide equitable health benefits for LGBT employees and their families, and whether they maintain an "inclusive internal culture."

Only 131 of those companies filed submissions, down from 377 participants last year. Many of the dropouts included federal contractors, HRC said, a role that makes them especially vulnerable to political pressure because so much of their revenue comes from Washington, D.C.

But the data "do not indicate a rollback of workplace inclusion. Instead, the decline in submissions reflects a shift in how employers are approaching transparency in the current environment," HRC wrote. 

Overall HRC said 534 companies earned a perfect score of 100, compared with 765 companies last year. 

"Taken together, these results indicate that among companies choosing to engage with the CEI, workplace inclusion efforts not only remained intact, but strengthened through practical, policy‑driven action," the report states.

You can click the button below to read the HRC report.