ExxonMobil shareholders on Wednesday
voted against adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the
company's official Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) policy, gay
weekly The
Dallas Voice reported.
Eighty percent of shareholders meeting
at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas voted against the
resolution which asks the corporation to amend “its written equal
employment opportunity policy to explicitly prohibit discrimination
based on sexual orientation and gender identity and to substantially
implement the policy.” The vote makes ExxonMobil the only
remaining Fortune 50 company to not offer gay protections.
The resolution first appeared in 1999 –
the year the two oil giants merged. In 2008, it received nearly 40
percent support.
“It's disappointing, but this isn't
the end of the issue for us,” said Resource Center Dallas' Rafael
McDonnell, who has lobbied for the resolution. “We're going to
continue to reach out and engage them.”
Before merging with Exxon, Mobil Corp.
offered such workplace protections and domestic partner benefits.
But after the merger Exxon's policies were carried forward and new
employees were no longer offered domestic partner benefits.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the
nation's largest gay rights advocate, responded to the vote by
calling on ExxonMobil to implement the policy changes on its own.
“The shareholder resolution to add
sexual orientation and gender identity to ExxonMobil's EEO policy was
a non-binding referendum and the company still has the chance to do
the right thing,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “As perhaps
the largest corporation in the country, ExxonMobil has a
responsibility to be a good corporate citizen; sadly they have fallen
far short. The company has resisted offering basic employment
protections for their LGBT workers for years and it's time they treat
all of their employees like the valuable assets they are.”