Follow the money.
1980 - The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) was founded. It is the largest LGBTQ equality-rights advocacy group and political lobbying organization in the U.S.
2002 – The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) published its 1st Corporate Equality Index. It is a tool to rate American businesses on their treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, consumers and investors. The Corporate Equality Index chooses companies to rank, and rates them on a scale of 0 to 100 based on flexible criteria grounded in the "10 principles" of the Equality Project.
Many companies are pressured to change policies that have earned them a poor score on the index, due to bad press. This has led to a competitive atmosphere among businesses to stay current in the latest LGBT-related inclusive policies. Larger corporations are much more likely to change LGBT-related policies as a result of the index than small or medium companies are. The Human Rights Campaign focuses on larger companies in the CEI, so smaller businesses are subject to little public backlash due to the efforts of the Human Rights Campaign and the index.
The 2012 HRC CQI report rated 636 companies of which 190 scored 100 %. Eighty-eight of the Fortune 500 companies received perfect scores - which was even more rigorous this time around because the top rating required employers to extend health insurance coverage without exclusions to transgender employees. The 1 glaring exception to this trend remained Irving (TX)-based ExxonMobil. It was the only company to get a negative rating in the index, out of 636 that were scored, including all those on the Fortune 500 list. By comparison, half of the companies in the top 20 of the Fortune 500 list received perfect scores.
1. Randall Stephenson, CEO of AT&T, based in Dallas, TX (same metropolitan area as the BSA National HQ, i.e., Irving). He currently sits on the BSA National Executive Committee and is expected to be elected BSA National (volunteer) President in 2014. He came out in support of homosexuals in BSA in the summer of 2012. AT&T scored a 100 on the 2012 HRC Corporate Equality Index.
2. James Turley, CEO of Ernst & Young, sits on the BSA National Executive Committee. He voiced his support for homosexuals in the BSA in the summer of 2012. E&Y scored a 100 on the 2012 HRC Corporate Equality Index (for the 6th consecutive year).
3. Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon, curently sits on the BSA National Executive Committee and is the immediate past National (volunteer) President. He has worked actively behind the scene to convince conservative church Scouting organizations to support homosexuals in Scouting.