30 Companies to Boycott if You’re Going to Boycott Chick-fil-A
If Facebook is any indicator, many if not most of my friends have signed on to the Chick-fil-A boycott because of that company’s charitable contributions and policies and CEO Dan Cathy’s recent statements about gay marriage. But there are plenty of corporations out there that won’t be sponsoring the pride parade anytime soon.
The 32-year-old Human Rights Campaign is the country’s largest LGBT civil rights organization and annually publishes the Corporate Equality Index (CEI), a list of companies graded according to their LGBT-related policies and practices. Each company on the CEI starts at zero and receives points for things like offering partner benefits and including sexual orientation in its equal opportunity employment policy. Points can be deducted, too, in case you’re wondering how Exxon Mobil wound up with a -25. Even Chick-fil-A fared better, with a score of 0.
According to HRC spokesperson Paul Guequierre, any company rated below 60 fails the test, but I decided to set the bar for failure a little higher, including only companies with a score of 30 or lower. I also included only well-known companies or brands that appear on the Fortune 500. So the next time you bypass the Chick-fil-A, be sure to check with this list, lest you wind up at Dairy Queen. I wouldn’t want anyone to think you’re a hypocrite.
Company Name | CEI Score | Fortune 500 Rank |
---|---|---|
Advance Auto Parts | 30 | 387 |
AES Corp. * | 15 | 156 |
AFLAC | 30 | 130 |
Allergan (Manufacturer of Botox) | 15 | 459 |
AmerisourceBergen (Owner of Good Neighbor Pharmacies and Pennsylvania's largest company by revenue) | 15 | 24 |
AutoZone | 15 | 329 |
Bed Bath & Beyond | 30 | 304 |
Berkshire Hathaway (Parent company of Geico, Dairy Queen, Fruit of the Loom) | 15 | 11 |
Big Lots | 15 | 436 |
BJ's Wholesale | 15 | 232 |
Dish Network | 0 | 200 |
Dole Foods | 30 | 331 |
Dollar General | 0 | 195 |
Dollar Tree | 30 | 397 |
Exxon Mobil | -25 | 2 |
Goodyear Tires | 15 | 141 |
Hess | 15 | 79 |
Host Hotels & Resorts (Includes Four Seasons and Marriott hotels) | 30 | 492 |
Kohl's | 15 | 142 |
Liberty Mutual | 0 | 71 |
Lowe's Companies Inc. | 15 | 42 |
News Corporation (Wall Street Journal, Fox News, 20th Century Fox) | 15 | 76 |
Phillip Morris | 0 | 94 |
RadioShack | 30 | 481 |
Ross Stores | 0 | 316 |
Smithfield Foods | 0 | 163 |
Sunoco | 15 | 78 |
SYSCO | 0 | 55 |
Tyson Foods | 15 | 87 |
Verizon Inc. | 20 | 13 |
* AES Corp does not refer to American Education Services, the student loan company, but to the Virginia-based power company, one of the world’s largest.