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Socially Responsible
(Pro-Gay) Investing
(AP)—People who want to invest only in compa
nies with tolerant attitudes toward gay and lesbian
employees now have a little help.
Progressive Asset Management, an Oakland
company specializing in socially responsible in
vesting, has produced a database on 250 publicly
traded companies and their policies toward ho
mosexuals.
The Oakland company gave a preview of the
database on Wednesday and released a partial list of
companies rated as “progressive” and “regressive.” It
planned to formally introduce the database at a news
conference today in New York.
The database evaluates whether each company
has five features: a written, non-discriminationpolicy,
benefits for domestic partners; diversity training;
organization and recognition of gay and lesbian
employee groups; and support to employees with the
AIDS virus. The information came from responses to
surveys, interviews with employees and news sto
ries, said Howard Tharsing, a Progressive Asset Man
agement account executive who developed the data
base.
Firms on the “progressive” list included Apple
Computer Inc., Borland International Inc. and Wells
Fargo &r Co. The “regressive” companies included
Delta Airlines and Target Stores — which challenged
the listing.
A spokeswoman for Dayton Hudson Corp.,
which owns Target, said the company’s diversity
standards include sexual orientation and that the
company regularly funds programs for gays, lesbians
and bisexuals. She said the company never received
a survey from Asset Target Management.
Tharsing said the brokerage firm made follow
up calls to companies that failed to respond to its
initial survey. He also said that Delta told him
Wednesday that it has a written policy that forbids
discrimination against gays and lesbians and that he
sent Delta another copy of the survey at Delta’s
request.
He said the partial list released Wednesday,
September 8, was not intended as a best-or-worst
ranking of firms but to show the variety of corporate
policies.T
“recommended" is Tracy Swearingen (District 18).
Although the most prominent contests involve
the mayor and the city council, many Atlantans are
ready to set aside years of apathy to elect a decent
school board. The televised antics of the current board
have cast a negative reflection on this would-be
international city long enough.
The two principal culprits are the ill-mannered
and disruptive Ina Evans (District 8) and D. F. Glover
(District 5). GAPAC, in its first entry into rating school
board candidates, rated both “unacceptable.” They
recommended Evans’s opponent Aaron Watson (an
other opponent, Richard James, is also “unaccept
able") and found “acceptable” Glover’s opponent
Russell Gregory.
A notable school board candidate (District 1) is
Jule Anderson (“recommended”) who is a former San
Francisco school board member who advocates full
gay/lesbian rights for school system employees and a
gay-affirmative curriculum Other “recommended”
candidates include Yvonne Fuller-Jones (District 3),
Anne Harper (District 4), Sadie Dennard (District 6),
Monica Jones (District 7), and Mae Kendall, District 9.
GAPAC found “acceptable" District 1 candidate Midge
Swee, the current board president Joseph Martin
(District 3), Hugh Fordyce (District 4), and Nisha
Simama (District 7), who happens to be the wife of
Jibari Simama.
Just before our deadline, GAPAC rated candi
dates for the Decatur City Commission and the Board
of Education. Although no commission candidate
was recommended in District 1, both Anne Branscome
and Michael Harris, who favor nondiscrimination in
city hiring, were judged “acceptable" in District 2. For
the school board, GAPAC rated Susan Medlock (1A)
“acceptable”,“recommended’’MaryNeilThomas(who
favors gay-sympathetic school counseling, nondis
crimination in hiring, and gay-themed books in
schools) over “unacceptable” Don Denard in District
2A. They recommended Cydne Nash, who called on
gay/lesbian parents to serve as “role models” by serv
ing on school board task forces, in 2B over W. H.
Simmons. No ratings were made in IB, where Sara
Tumipseed and Tom Keating both expressed support
for nondiscrimination in general terms but balked at
specifics.
Some thoughts on this year’s elections:
Many gays and lesbians who aren’t parents or
educators have ignored school board elections in the
past. GAPAC has begun evaluating candidates for
these important school board seats, something they
did not do before and were criticized for not doing in
these pages. Don’t you agree it’s past time more of us
took an interest?
GAPAC has been criticized, and not for the first
time, for (1) favoring straight candidates when there
are gay candidates running, (2) not specifying which
candidates are gay or lesbian or which are straight, and
(3) not including explanations when it announces
ratings.
The critics have a point, because a gay organiza
tion should not oppose the political aspirations of gay
candidates without good reason, and because voters
need adequate information. But which reasons are
good and which are trivial? Moreover, information is
available froma variety of sources—community pub
lications, candidates forums and the candidates them
selves—-not just from GAPAC.
The reasons for choosing one candidate over
another naturally depend on your objectives: do we
view ourselves as at war with the political process, or
as participants in the process? It seems to me we need
people with both viewpoints—some working inside,
some applying pressure from outside. It seems clear
that GAPAC represents primarily those who feel they
are, or want to be, engaged in the political process, and
just as those reading editorials in The News or Southern
Voice or ETC. need to consider the source, those
looking for election information should consider
GAPAC’s orientation, which is one of many possible
gay/lesbian viewpoints. Lesbians and gays need to
decide which they prefer: to be part of an uncritical
bloc vote, or of a community of voters whose intelli
gence and sophistication are respected by candidates.
This is probably a good time to reiterate that,
as a publication of the nonprofit Atlanta Gay Cen
ter, Inc., The News does not (cannot) endorse
political candidates. Neither the views of this writer
nor the endorsements reported in this article speak
for the Center. But they add to the available infor
mation, and conscientious voters need to consider
this and all other information they can get their
hands on. Finally, they should decide for them
selves, accepting no one else's prescriptions with
out question, and carry ingno one’s unaltered sample
ballot into the voting booth.
The choice is always yours, whether you
choose to make a decision yourself, or choose to
leave that decision to someone else. ▼
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