AT&T Will Keep Gay Worker Protections

[CHARLESTON, SC] - For the second year in a row, AT&T shareholders have rejected a proposal to remove the company's GLBT nondiscrimination policy.

A shareholder group had forced the issue onto the agenda of the company's annual meeting in Charleston, S.C.

The AT&T board had recommended the challenge to the policy be defeated.

With over 2.3 billion shares cast against (94 percent), only a scant 151 million shares (6 percent) supported the proposal.

The nondiscrimination policy at AT&T, in effect since 1975, is the oldest in the United States.

"AT&T shareholders are to be congratulated for again rejecting this regressive proposal," said Gregory Srnick, co-president of AT&T's Lesbian and Gay Business Resource Group (LEAGUE).

"The primary purpose of this 27-year-old policy has always been to foster an inclusive workplace. This is not a special right. All employees should be free of discrimination," he said.