FORTUNE 500 Project

Equality Forum lobbies the nation’s largest corporations for sexual orientation discrimination protection by making the business case to CEOs, Human Resources Directors, Boards of Directors and large institutional investors at noncompliant companies. When the program began in fall 2003, Equality Forum identified 177 companies that did not provide protection or whose status was unknown. In 2008, 94.6% (473) of the FORTUNE 500 protect their employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Project update: Equality Forum researched the 2008 FORTUNE 500 list and contacted companies whose status was noncompliant or unknown. On August 27, Equality Forum issued a press release announcing the updated list of compliant companies.

473 (94.6%) of 2008 FORTUNE 500 companies provide nondiscrimination protection for their gay and lesbian employees.

View the list of 27 (5.4%) 2008 FORTUNE 500 companies that do not include "sexual orientation" in their hiring and employment nondiscrimination policies:
By Rank | By Name | By State | By Industry

View the list of 473 (94.6%) 2008 FORTUNE 500 companies that protect their employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation:
By Rank | By Name | By State | By Industry

View the entire list of 2008 FORTUNE 500 companies:
By Rank | By Name | By State | By Industry

Examples of recent statements of compliance received from FORTUNE 500 companies:

	Sonic Automotive	Smith International
	Arvin Meritor	Universal Health Services
	Devon Energy	Lennar

Equality Forum has also contacted the 25 largest mutual funds, investment managers, university endowments, philanthropic foundations, and labor, state and municipal pension funds, requesting information on their proxy voting guidelines. Below are letters from firms that have indicated support for these proposals:

	Vanguard	Harvard University
	Brown University	Mott Foundation
	CalPERS	Rockefeller Foundation
	Dartmouth University	University of Pennsylvania
	Ford Foundation	University of Southern California

Please help support this project!