Forbes reports that Walmart will offer health benefits to domestic partners of their employees to same-sex couples not just heterosexual couples. For a company that has danced around LGBT rights, this seems like a huge step. Over the last few years there have been reports of the unfair treatment of the LGBT community. For example, in 2010, after admitting to being gay, an employee was forced to wear a yellow vest while working. Another example is when Walmart promoted a children’s book that “suggested that gay people can overcome ‘sin’ and convert to heterosexuality with the help of counselling.”
But unfortunately in a leaked internal memo from Sally Welborn, Walmart’s Senior Vice President of Benefits, to the retailer’s management, she states that this policy is merely “a business decision.” She also comments that most of Walmart’s competitors have this policy. Therefore this so-called “support” for the LGBT community is reduced to Walmart’s need to stay in competition with other companies and by doing so, saves face and seem “ethical”.
Should the public be angry that Walmart’s policy was driven by profit and staying in the competition? Personally, I am disappointed that this change of policy was not driven by a moral motive of equal rights but by profit. Nonetheless, same-sex couples who work at Walmart can benefit and this move by Walmart may spark other companies to follow suit.
http://www.advocate.com/news/news-features/2010/06/15/rolling-back-discrimination
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/07/walmart-stopped-funding-g_n_2638148.html