A week after historic LGBT wins at the ballot box, there’s more great news to share: the Human Rights Campaign has published its 2013 Corporate Equality Index, and five automakers have earned perfect scores. (That’s up from three on last year’s list.) However, there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

Scoring

To assign rankings, HRC employs a range of criteria, including whether or not a company…

• Prohibits Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation — 15 points
• Prohibits Discrimination Based on Gender Identity or Expression — 15 points
• Offers Partner Health/Medical Insurance — 15 points
• Has Parity Across Other “Soft” Benefits for Partners (half credit for parity across some, but not all benefits — 10 points
• Offers Transgender-Inclusive Health Insurance Coverage — 10 points
• Firm-wide Organizational Competency Programs — 10 points
• Has Employer-Supported Employee Resource Group OR Firm-Wide Diversity Council (Would Support ERG if Employees Express Interest — half credit)– 10 points
• Positively Engages the External LGBT Community (partial credit of 5 points given for less than 3 efforts) — 15 points
• Responsible Citizenship Employers will have 25 points deducted from their score for a large-scale official or public anti-LGBT blemish on their recent records — -25 points

HRC focuses its analysis on Fortune 500 companies, which unfortunately leaves out foreign automakers. However, any company on Planet Earth can be listed in the Corporate Equality Index simply by volunteering the information listed above.

THE GOOD NEWS

Last year, three automakers scored perfect 100s on the Corporate Equality Index: Chrysler, Ford, and Toyota.

This year, Chrysler, Ford, and Toyota remained on the A+ list, with General Motors and Volkswagen moving up to join them. (Joe LaMuraglia — a friend of Gaywheels and LGBT Liaison for Communications at GM — assured us that GM’s dip in the 2012 scoring would be resolved, and we’re happy to see that’s happened.)

In other words, all three Detroit automakers are fabulously, officially LGBT-friendly, as are two of their biggest competitors.

Not far down the HRC’s list, we find Subaru, with a score of 85. To reach a perfect 100, Subaru just needs to add transgender-friendly health coverage and benefits like bereavement leave for domestic partners.

Close on Subaru’s heels, we find Nissan, with a score of 75 — up a whopping 45 points  from last year. Nissan has instituted a range of policy changes to lift its ranking, and the automaker could land a perfect 100 next year if it adds health insurance to address the needs of transgender employees and if it implements diversity training or other corporate competency programs.

The only 0 on the Index’s auto industry list is Penske Automotive, which operates “174 [automotive] franchises in 18 states and Puerto Rico and 170 franchises located outside the United States, primarily in the United Kingdom”, according to boilerplate from a recent press release. The company has approximately 16,000 employees — none of whom are protected from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation of expression. Perhaps you should shop elsewhere.

THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE

Like other civil rights movements, the push for LGBT equality has hit its share of stumbling blocks:

• HIV and AIDS halted the tide of political progress that LGBT Americans were making in the early 1980s and killed some of our most articulate leaders.
• Bill Clinton came into office promising to repeal the ban on gays in the military, but what we got was the even-worse policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”.
• Anti-gay groups like the National Organization for Marriage — not to mention the Mormon and Catholic churches — have backed dozens of state amendments banning same-sex marriage, and in more than 30 states, they’ve been successful.

But as disheartening as those obstacles have been, they’ve also served to galvanize the LGBT community, making us more powerful and more visible. In particular, the fight to cure HIV/AIDS and end discrimination against people living with the disease has transformed us into a powerful political force. In fact, there’s some data to suggest that LGBT voters cast the decisive ballots in last week’s presidential election.

Today, public sentiment is on our side. Our president has led by example, repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and implementing hate-crimes laws. The majority of Americans now support equal rights for LGBT Americans, including marriage equality. That support is most pronounced among young people, while the opposition is slowly dying off or “evolving”.

America’s corporations are an indicator of what’s to come: this year, a record 252 corporations scored a perfect 100 on HRC’s Corporate Equality Index. Eleven years ago, that number was just 13. Furthermore, for the first time ever, a majority of corporations include protection for employees based not only on sexual orientation, but also gender expression.

We’re not out of the woods yet. Homophobes on both sides of the aisle are still fighting marriage equality. And in the auto industry, major corporations like Hyundai, Kia, and Porsche still offer no workplace protections for LGBT employees. (Neither does Suzuki, but that’s no longer an issue.)

On the whole, however, we’re facing a much brighter future.