Donald Trump is expected to name Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil, as his pick for secretary of state, causing concern among LGBTQ rights advocates.
ExxonMobil did not add sexual orientation and gender identity to their nondiscrimination ordinance until last year, following President Obama’s executive order the year before requiring federal contractors to offer such protections.
In 2014, the company’s shareholders voted against offering protections to LGBTQ workers for the 17th time, with less than 20 percent voting in favor.
In 1999 when Exxon and Mobil merged, the newly formed company rescinded Mobil’s domestic partner benefits for gay and lesbian employees.
Related: Trump says Obama helped him choose his cabinet full of homophobes
The company has the ignoble honor as the only company that has received a negative rating from the Human Rights Campaign, earning a negative 25 both in 2012 and 2013. It earned a score of 85 on the HRC‘s 2017 Corporate Equality Index.
Chad Griffin, the president of the HRC, has released a statement calling on the Senate to ask tough questions of Tillerson should he be nominated.
“ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson’s nomination raises critical questions as to how a Trump administration plans to protect LGBTQ employees and contractors affiliated with the State Department, and ultimately whether it will continue American efforts to advance equality through U.S. foreign policy,” said Griffin. “Will Trump and Tillerson take on brutal dictators like Putin who have inspired attacks against LGBTQ people? Will they assist LGBTQ Muslim refugees fleeing death from ISIS? For millions of people around the globe, their position on these and other issues are a matter of life and death. These are among the questions that Senators — Democrats and Republicans alike — must ask.”
Tillerson’s ties with Putin and Russia are also troubling, especially coming on the heels of the CIA concluding that Russia interfered with the U.S. elections in order to help get Trump elected.
Related: Another one of Trump’s cabinet candidates has made horrific comments about LGBTQs
There is some reason to hold out hope, as Tillerson is said to have been influential in helping end the ban on gay youth joining the Boy Scouts of America, for which he served as president from 2010 to 2012. The ban ended in 2014, with the ban on gay Boy Scout leaders ending the following year.
“I can’t get into the intimacy of these conversations. But he agonized over this. He prayed on it, and ultimately he came to the conclusion the only thing that can guide him here is what’s best for the young boys,” John Hamre, president of the Washington think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, of which Tillerson is a board member, told The Dallas News. “I think he became a key leader in helping the group come to a consensus.”
PrinceofReason
We recently took one step forward, now we are taking twelve step back. Ugh!
rbernard
@PrinceofReason: you nailed it !
Herman75
Exxon went to court to fight paying the Valdiz fines at the same time they were making record profits. They are evil.
gaym50ish
@Herman75: Because it’s a huge company, Exxon’s profits that are in the billions seem obscene, but they amount to only about 4.5 percent of total sales. That profit margin is lower than the average of all companies, which is about 7 percent. And doctors, lawyers, accountants and real estate agents typically enjoy profit margins of 15 percent or more.
1EqualityUSA
Help reverse this Russo-American tragedy by signing onto the Faithless Elector petition. December 19th could turn this blind flight around if enough electors say, “Donald Trump, You’re fired!”
A President, too busy tweeting about Saturday Night Live to go to Security briefings, is not fit for our highest office.
https://www.change.org/p/electoral-college-make-hillary-clinton-president-on-december-19-4a78160a-023c-4ff0-9069-53cee2a095a8
1EqualityUSA
Our nation’s wealth going to the top one percent created a world stage theater. The president is a mere steward of the illusion. Beyond partisan politics, beyond borders; follow the money. Worldliness is a symptom. Manipulate as was foretold, but know that it was foretold.
Vartan X.
Approved by our new Russian overlords. Welcome to the United States of Russia. CYKA BLYAT!
dwes09
Although the man is clearly ambivalent in his relation to LGBT civil rights/equality, more troubling is what this and all Trump’s other appointments indicate. He does not intend to “drain the swamp”, the main reason his mislead followers voted for him. He is the apotheosis of oligarchy/kleptocracy; appointing the very worst offenders to positions intended to monitor/moderate the behavior of their kind. We can now assume that he will not end cronyism or the meddling of wall street, but encourage it. He will increase censorship, reduce the ability of citizens to redress reverences, impede the necessary shift to a modern world trade based economy, hobble the development of new industry based on renewables and sustainability (opportunities other nations are seizing on, industries we need to excel in).
1EqualityUSA
A religious war, though the motive is mundane and terrestrial. The quilt is unfolding. Behold, an orange patch. Trump is making deals with creeps. Our country is better than this. We have freedom and with it, power. Power needs a strong stand, as anything less is folly. Friends in deed.
1EqualityUSA
pardon the space “indeed.” im typing with pets on me.
1EqualityUSA
Look for oil, and you’ll see mayhem.
1EqualityUSA
Study water, and you’ll see wars.
dwes09
That’s why the military is up on the most recent research on climate change, and there are few deniers in the upper ranks (though Trump will try to change that no doubt). They know that regions newly prone to drought will become unstable . They understand that climate change will alter the political climate as food and water availiblilty changes
1EqualityUSA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLo3k9iJGUc
Congressman Asks Electoral College To Block Donald Trump | MSNBC
Published on Dec 13, 2016
Ahead of the electoral college’s meeting, Rep. Jim Hines, D-CT, is asking them to block Donald Trump and requests information from the investigation on Russia’s interference with the election. He joins MSNBC’s Ali Velshi to discuss.
(Next Monday, the electors could end this joke. December 19th, 2016)
Sucking heavy, thick substance from on patch on the Earth’s skin is bound to throw our lithosphere off kilter, especially after the substance has been aerosolized. We’ll be quaking in our boots. A matching set of tectonic plates for you?
Horse Lips
Hey thanks, gay republicans! Way to go.
1EqualityUSA
The oil pipelines may one day supply water. Will the water have been bartered for, or ransomed?