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Our People / Celebrating the LGBTQ Community with Pride
June 12, 2019

This is an important month—and an important year—for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) community: June marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. The catalytic event took place in June of 1969, after New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a bar in Greenwich Village popular with the gay community. Over the next six days, the riots that followed launched the gay rights movement. Pride festivals held in June around the world honor the Stonewall uprising, the LGBTQ community and progress that’s been made around LGBTQ rights.

While the country has come a long way when it comes to LGBTQ rights, there is still work to be done. That effort starts at home and it starts in the workplace. Pfizer has a longstanding and proud tradition of support for the LGBTQ community, within its offices and beyond. Here are some points of pride in honor of Pride.

  • In March of this year, Pfizer joined 160 other leading companies in a business coalition that supports passage of The Equality Act, which is legislation being considered by Congress that would provide federal protections for the LGBTQ community.
  • For 16 consecutive years, Pfizer has earned the highest possible score—100 percent—on the Corporate Equality Index (CEI), which is a survey put forth by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) evaluating U.S.-based businesses on the way they treat LGBTQ employees, customers and investors.
  • In November of 2018, Pfizer signed onto the United Nations LBGTI Business Standards, a set of global standards to support the business community in tackling discrimination against lesbian, gay, bi, trans and intersex people.
  • Pfizer established a Colleague Council for the LGBTQ community, which educates employees so that they better understand issues facing their LGBTQ colleagues. For the month of June, the Colleague Council for the LGBTQ community will fly the rainbow flag outside of the World Headquarters on 42nd Street in New York City for the first time.
  • To encourage openness, communication, understanding and acceptance, Pfizer created a toolkit for employees, encouraging its teams to stand up for inclusiveness and to come out as straight allies to their LGBTQ colleagues. The toolkit addresses a variety of topics, including what terms to use; how to intervene in response to offensive comments in the office; advice on how to speak up for inclusiveness; the importance of being an active ally and more.
  • And in January of 2019, Pfizer re-introduced domestic partner health and insurance coverage (it had been removed in 2017, after the United States Supreme Court determined that same sex couples have a constitutional right to marry). The health and insurance benefits are available to domestic partners, regardless of gender, and children of the domestic partner. In addition, Pfizer expanded transgender-inclusive health care benefits, and covers transgender surgery without a lifetime limit.

During Pride month, and every month, Pfizer celebrates its LGBTQ team members, and encourages all employees and corporate leaders to become allies and in the fight for human rights.