Three Rhode Island-based firms earned a perfect score on this year's Corporate Equality Index (CEI), an annual report from LGBTQ policy foundation the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) that ranks companies based on best practices for LGBTQ inclusion.
All told, the HRC gave 767 companies in the U.S. a perfect score on its 2021 CEI, which uses criteria across four categories: non-discrimination policies, equitable benefits for LGBTQ workers and their families, supporting and inclusive culture and corporate social responsibility.
HRC updates its CEI criteria every so often to reflect how best practices for LGBTQ inclusion at work change over time. In a statement, the organization noted that an increasing number of companies have adopted transgender-inclusive initiatives, particularly comprehensive health coverage — "the most considerable progress" measured in the CEI's 19-year history, per the HRC.
"While the CEI cannot measure every facet of what makes a workspace inclusive, it does create a foundation upon which employees can feel more comfortable living and working as their true selves—an important step, but one which is only the starting point," HRC President Alphonso David said in the statement. "Diversity and inclusion policies and practices advanced through tools like the CEI are critical, but meaningful change requires breathing life into these policies in real and tangible ways, so that LGBTQ employees are truly seen, valued and respected not only at work, but in every aspect of life."
These are the companies that earned a score of 100 in the Ocean State:
Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island
Citizens Financial Group
Hasbro Inc.
