: American Airlines: Supporting the LGBTQ Community In 2020, American Airlines was honored by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) with the highest possible rating (a score of 100\%) in the prestigious 2020 Corporate Equality Index (CEI). American has earned a perfect score on the index for the past 18 years, one of a few corporations to earn the highest score and the only airline to do so every year since the start of the index. American is a strong ally for LGBTQ team members and customers. The airline was the first major U.S. airline to protect LGBTQ team members by including gender identity and sexual orientation in workplace nondiscrimination policies. They were the first major airline to have a company-recognized LGBTQ employee resource group, the Gay and Lesbian Employee Association, GLEAM, which was created to work with management and to reach out to all our employees and allies to embrace fairness, acceptance and diversity in all programs and policies. Patrick O'Keeffe, Senior Vice President of People states, "American's continued support of our LGBTQ team members and customers is unwavering. It's always an honor to be recognized for the actions we take to foster diversity, equity and inclusion." But it wasn't always this way. American Airlines had a strained relationship with the LGBTQ community in the early 1990s fueled by two major crises that caused the organization to reexamine its corporate cultures as well as its policies. The first crisis became known as the "pillows and blankets" situation. On April 25, 1993, a March on Washington, D.C. for LGBTQ Rights took place. For this particular demonstration, activists held rallies to bring more attention to the HIV/AIDS crisis which was causing the deaths of many gay men. Thousands of activists flew to and from Washington, D.C., to participate in the rallies. There was a large number of the activists on an American Airlines flight bound for Dallas-Fort Worth from Washington, D.C. A crew member sent an electronic message to the airline's operations center requesting a change of pillows and blankets when they noticed the number of gay men onboard the flight. While unstated, the implication of this request was that there was potential HIVIAIDS risk from the atypical number of gay men on the flight. The ground crew complied. A fax of the message was leaked to media outlets through an Associated Press Newswire and then went "viral." The second crisis occurred in November of the same year. An HIVIAIDS positive man was removed from a flight when he tried to deliver IV medication to himself. These incidents resulted in calls for a global boycott of the airline. Widespread outrage in the LGBTQ community followed and a class-action lawsuit was filed. The backlash resulted in negative attention and bad publicity for the airline. American responded quickly to the events by apologizing and creating a "Rainbow Team" to implement revised company policies supporting the LGBTQ community. This team was dedicated to LGBTQ issues and began building pride-parade floats. Moreover, the team offered the community useful services such as listing gay-themed national events on their calendar, and donating to the Human Rights Campaign. American began offering special discount codes when customers booked travel to and from LGBTQ events. American is the official airline of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation, the Elton John Foundation and many other LGBTQ organizations. American viewed this as a bottom-line business decision. The initial organizations. American viewed this as a bottom-line business decision. The initial investment of $300,000 resulted in increased revenue of over $190 million by 1999 . In response to incidents in the 1990s, American Airlines committed to working with the LGBTQ communities through honesty and trust. They gained positive coverage in the LGBTQ media and among community leaders. They are known as a pioneer for LGBTQ friendly workplace policies. When the Supreme Court of the United States legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, American Airlines temporarily changed its Twitter avatar to a rainbow flag logo in support. Conservative groups criticized the airline, but American stood firm, defending their position. The airline uses the rainbow flag in their social media avatar during pride month every year. Recently, the airline has taken public stands for transgender rights and now offer non-binary gender options during the booking process (instead of having to choose between male or female, customers can now choose U or X ). Several other airlines say they will follow American's lead on this. They endorse the Equality Act and are the first global airline to endorse the United Nations Standards of Conduct for Business aimed at tackling discrimination globally against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people. Today, they are an industry leader in their commitment to LGBTQ issues and stakeholders Discussion Questions 1. American had to make difficult decisions after the incidents in 1993. What might have happened if they had ignored the concerns of the LGBTQ community? Discuss some of their other options. 2. Would you want to work for American Airlines? Explain your answer by considering their stance on LGBTQ issues. What are the concerns you would want addressed? 3. Do some research on LGBTQ tourism (how much they spend on travel compared to other groups). Make the business case for embracing the LGBTQ community