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The Equality Act is federal legislation that would provide the same basic protections to LGBT people as are provided to other protected groups under federal law.

Since HRC joined with legislators to introduce the Equality Act in Congress, HRC has continued to build support from the business community.

The Business Coalition for the Equality Act launched with 60 leading American companies, including Google and IBM. With operations in all 50 states, headquarters spanning 22 states and a combined $1.9 trillion in revenue, the companies that make up the coalition employ over 4.2 million people in the United States alone.

Yet the global landscape for the social and economic inclusion of the LGBT community remains a patchwork of extremes – from progressive countries leading on matters of equality, to nations enforcing laws rolling back basic LGBT rights.

In addition to implementing LGBT-inclusive non-discrimination statements and codes of conduct for their global operations, the members will have the opportunity to work with HRC and advance LGBT equality in the workplace in a number of ways. This includes hosting LGBT workplace inclusion summits in international markets, forming LGBT employee resource groups (ERGs), and strengthening the powerful business case for LGBT equality around the world. Some companies may also engage in public policy advocacy on LGBT issues, and work collaboratively with NGO and civil society groups to bolster in-country efforts to make progress on LGBT rights.

HRC President Chad Griffin said: “These business leaders are showing true leadership and fighting to end a shameful status quo that leaves LGBT people at risk in a majority of states for being denied services or fired because of who they are or who they love.

“We’re proud of all these corporate leaders stepping forward to say that all Americans, including LGBT people, should be able to live free from fear of discrimination and have a fair chance to earn a living.”

HRC says the Equality Act “provides clear, permanent and equal protections under federal law for all Americans in vital areas of life, like employment, access to public spaces, housing, credit, education, jury service, and federally funded programs.”

Republicans claim it violates freedom of religion and freedom of speech.
Below are the companies backing the Equality Act:
Abercrombie & Fitch Co.,  Accenture, Hilton Worldwide Inc., Airbnb Inc., CA Technologies Inc., Hyatt Hotels Corp., Amazon.com Inc., IBM Corp., American Airlines, Intel Corp., American Eagle Outfitters, Kellogg Co., Apple Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., Levi Strauss & Co., Best Buy Co. Inc., MasterCard Inc., Biogen, Johnson & Johnson, Boehringer Ingelheim USA Corp., Marriott International Inc., Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc., McGraw Hill Financial, Brown-Forman Corp., Microsoft Corp., Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, Caesars Entertainment Corp., Monsanto Co., Capital One Financial Corp., Moody’s Corp., Cardinal Health Inc., Choice Hotels International Inc, Oracle Corp., Corning Inc., Orbitz Worldwide Inc., The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo Inc., CVS Health Corp., Qualcomm Inc., Diageo North America, Replacements Ltd., Dropbox Inc., Salesforce, The Dow Chemical Co., Sodexo Inc., EMC Corp., Symantec Corp., Facebook Inc., Target Corp., Gap Inc., Tech Data Corp., General Mills Inc., T-Mobile USA Inc., General Electric Co., Twitter Inc., Google Inc., Nike Inc., Unilever, The Hershey Company, WeddingWire Inc.

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