Wal-Mart Adds Transgender Protections

September 29, 2011 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Retail giant Wal-Mart has added transgender protections to its employee non-discrimination policy.

The protections include gender identity and gender expression Phillip Keene, a company spokesperson, told the Windy City Times. Keene did not confirm when the new policy went into effect, only that the change was made “several weeks ago.”   

Sexual orientation protections are already a part of the company’s “Discrimination and Harassment Prevention Policy.”   

According to the news report, Wal-Mart scored relatively poorly on the Human Rights Campaign’s annual Corporate Equality Index, which ranks major companies on their LGBT policies and practices. Wal-Mart received a 40% ranking out of 100 last year, for a failure to amend its anti-discrimination policy to include gender protections.   

Keene said the addition of gender protections in the policy was precipitated by a standard review of the policy and not by complaints. 

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