Equality Forum: Record 78% of Fortune 500 Companies Provide Workplace Protection

PHILADELPHIA, April 28 /PRNewswire/ -- A record 389 (78%) of Fortune 500 Companies have adopted personnel policies that protect sexual orientation from workplace discrimination.

In fall 2003, Equality Forum in collaboration with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) and Canadian Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (CGLCC) wrote to the 177 CEOs of 2003 Fortune 500 Companies that did not provide workplace protection based on sexual orientation requesting that inclusion in their anti-discrimination policy. These corporations were offered information and assistance and were informed that they would be commended if they amended their policies before Equality Forum's International
Business Colloquium on May 1, 2004.


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Domestic partners' measure approved
By PAUL CARRIER, Portland Press Herald Writer
Copyright © 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.  
AUGUSTA — Domestic partners, including gays, lesbians and heterosexuals, will get expanded inheritance rights under a bill that Gov. John Baldacci plans to sign into law this week.

The Senate gave final approval to the House-passed bill on an 18-14 vote Tuesday and sent it to the governor, who will sign it as soon as a ceremony can be arranged. The bill was rewritten and heavily debated over a period of weeks as it worked its way through the Legislature, but the final vote came without debate.

The law will give the surviving partner in a qualifying unmarried relationship the same inheritance rights that a spouse has when a married partner dies without leaving a will. Supporters say heterosexual couples will be the biggest beneficiaries because they outnumber same-sex couples, but the bill has been this year's top legislative priority for the Maine Lesbian Gay Political Alliance.

The law will kick in 90 days after the Legislature adjourns, which should make it effective in late July or early August. That's far too late for Charles Wynott of Portland, who lost the house he had shared with his partner when the partner died seven years ago. But Wynott praised the Legislature for taking steps now to prevent others from experiencing what he went through back in 1997.