Gay and Lesbian Employees at Microsoft (GLEAM) is a group of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees at Microsoft. GLEAM originated as a private mailing list during the 1980s. Members of the list successfully campaigned for sexual orientation to be added to Microsoft's anti-discrimination policy in 1989. In 1997, group leaders would point out that anti-gay actions occurred, but "overt bias is extremely rare".
GLEAM also lobbied for Microsoft to offer insurance and other benefits to same-sex domestic partners. Lobbying intensified after Lotus software offered these benefits to its workers. Microsoft added this benefit in 1993.
GLEAM became more formally organized in 1993 under Microsoft's Diversity Advisory Council, along with Blacks At Microsoft (BAM), the women's group Hoppers, and similar groups.
More recently the group influenced Microsoft to add gender identity and expression to its anti-discrimination policies in April 2005 and in 2006 to progressively extend health coverage benefits to cover transgender care, and some surgery. The Human Rights Campaign, an American gay rights group that focuses on transgender issues, updated Microsoft's Corporate Equality Index rating to 100%. The Corporate Equality Index is a set of metrics used by the Human Rights Campaign to measure a company's compliance with its goals of gender identity neutrality in the workplace.
Read more about Gay And Lesbian Employees At Microsoft: Washington State Gay Rights Legislation
Famous quotes containing the words gay, lesbian and/or employees:
“Coming out, all the way out, is offered more and more as the political solution to our oppression. The argument goes that, if people could see just how many of us there are, some in very important places, the negative stereotype would vanish overnight. ...It is far more realistic to suppose that, if the tenth of the population that is gay became visible tomorrow, the panic of the majority of people would inspire repressive legislation of a sort that would shock even the pessimists among us.”
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“When you take a light perspective, it’s easier to step back and relax when your child doesn’t walk until fifteen months, . . . is not interested in playing ball, wants to be a cheerleader, doesn’t want to be a cheerleader, has clothes strewn in the bedroom, has difficulty making friends, hates piano lessons, is awkward and shy, reads books while you are driving through the Grand Canyon, gets caught shoplifting, flunks Spanish, has orange and purple hair, or is lesbian or gay.”
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