Equality Forum, a national and international lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization reported that a record 477 (95.4 percent) of the 2012 FORTUNE 500 Companies voluntarily include sexual orientation in their employment non-discrimination policies. In 2004, there were 323 (64.6 percent) of the FORTUNE 500 Companies that provided sexual orientation workplace protection.

“Ninety percent (90 percent) of Americans mistakenly believe that sexual orientation workplace protection is provided under the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia mandate workplace sexual orientation protection,” stated Malcolm Lazin, executive director, Equality Forum. “In most of America, gays and lesbians can be fired solely because of their sexual orientation and without any misconduct or violation of corporate policy.”

Lazin noted that this is the first time that the Republican vice presidential candidate and the Democratic presidential and vice presidential candidates support passage of ENDA. President Obama and Vice President Biden support the inclusion of sexual orientation in federal ENDA. In 2007, Congressman Paul Ryan voted in favor of the unsuccessful attempt to amend ENDA to include sexual orientation and gender identity. While Gov. Romney opposes workplace discrimination, he is not on record as supporting ENDA to include sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

Source: Equality Forum; www.equalityforum.com.