For the 14th year in a row, Apple has received a perfect score in the Corporate Equality Index, a Human Rights Campaign project ranking companies in the United States on their treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered workers.
To achieve a perfect score companies must not only ban discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, but offer domestic benefits to LGBT couples plus equal health coverage for transgendered people, which can include transitioning procedures. According to the HRC report, some other tech businesses on par with Apple included Facebook, Intel, Microsoft, Tesla, and Twitter.
Just under half of the 851 companies surveyed by the HRC achieved perfect scores, with tech companies like Apple doing better as a rule. The higher rating for tech companies is likely due to the fact they are usually newer companies, who wrote LGBT-related support into their policies form the start, unlike older firms have been forced to do.
Apple has long been a supporter of LGBT causes, and was one of the first companies in the U.S. to offer equal benefits to same-sex partners. The company participates in the San Francisco Pride Parade each year, and CEO Tim Cook came out as gay in 2014, and has continued to support U.S. legislation supporting gay rights. The HRC gave Cook its Visibility Award in October.
