Equal Time
Progressive Grocer|February 2021
THE FOOD AND CONSUMABLES INDUSTRY CONTINUES TO DEVELOP ITS POLICIES REGARDING THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY.
Bridget Goldschmidt
Equal Time
The day after he was inaugurated, President Joe Biden signed an executive order directing every federal agency to affirm that civil rights laws prohibiting sex discrimination likewise extend to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. As Mark David Stern reported last month in e-magazine Slate, “This move will extend nondiscrimination protections to millions of LGBTQ people with regard to housing, education, immigration, credit, health care, military service, Peace Corps service, family and medical leave, welfare, criminal justice, law enforcement, transportation, federal grants, and so much more.”

President Biden’s executive order comes amid the growing visibility of the LTBTQ+ community. A 2020 McKinsey report points out: “Hundreds of major consumer brands have become regular sponsors of annual Pride events. A record 206 major corporations signed an amicus brief ... advocating for the Supreme Court’s June 2020 decision protecting LGBTQ+ individuals from workplace discrimination. Companies are also increasingly making business-critical decisions about recruitment practices, employee-resource groups and marketing that embrace LGBTQ+ rights.”

Despite these gains, challenges unfortunately remain, particularly in the workplace. “It is still a burden to know that coming out professionally won’t result in spoken or unspoken backlash,” says Ben Conrad, founder and CEO of Plainview, N.Y.-based Five North Chocolate, an LGBTQ+-owned Fair Trade and vegan chocolate business. That backlash could entail lower pay, missed promotions or unfair treatment, adds Conrad.

This story is from the February 2021 edition of Progressive Grocer.

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This story is from the February 2021 edition of Progressive Grocer.

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