Trans* Success

Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) released the tenth edition of its Corporate Equality Index, which evaluates Fortune 500 companies for their treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) employees. Among the most important findings include dramatic gains in trans healthcare coverage and inclusive employment nondiscrimination policies:

• The number of companies providing transgender inclusive healthcare coverage quadrupled since 2009, the year when the HRC began requiring these benefits for a perfect score. That is a growth of 49 companies in 2009 to 207 companies in 2012.
• 207 companies now include medically necessary care including sex reassignment surgery in their healthcare plan, almost a tripling in growth since last year.
• For the first time, fifty percent of the Fortune 500 companies now include gender identity in their employment nondiscrimination policy, a growth of 1,567 percent since 2002.

The Human Rights Campaign said in a report to be published Thursday that 207 of the 636 businesses it surveyed for its annual Corporate Equality Index either are already providing transgender- inclusive employee health benefits or plan to at the start of the new year.

Last year, 85 companies had insurance plans that paid for sex transformation surgeries, and only 49 did in 2009. A decade ago, when the campaign launched the index, none did.

To maintain a coveted 100 percent and a listing in the campaign’s preferred vendors’ guide for gay, lesbian and transgender consumers, companies had to offer at least one insurance plan that covers at least $75,000 worth of surgery and other treatments recommended by a patient’s doctor.