Shopping can move mountains. Especially when we’re talking about mountains of discrimination against the LGBT community. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has done an exhaustive audit of big, key brands to see who treats our people well, and who doesn’t– and then scored each one for our convenience. It’s called the Corporate Equality Index, or BUYING FOR EQUALITY 2010.

So what does it mean to score 100 percent? It means those companies have banned discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (hallelujah!), provide benefits for LGBT employees and their families (amen!) and publicly support LGBT equality (praise them all!). And you know what’s even cooler? Despite a recession, there are MORE companies this year that scored 100 percent than last year! I’m talking 305 golden organizations compared to 260 just a year earlier. Just amazing. 

So, you ask, what are some of these forward-thinking, non-discriminating companies? 

Target. Best Buy. CVS. Anheiser-Busch. HomeDepot. Borders. Shell. AllState. American Express. Time Warner. Starbucks. Abercrombie & Fitch. Subaru. Nike. Apple. Dell. JetBlue. Orbitz. Mattel. UPS.

And the list goes on….. To view the full list by shopping category, visit http://www.hrc.org/buyersguide2010/category.htm?category=where_to_shop 

Now the power is in our hands to reward the good companies by patronizing them, and speak volumes by keeping our money in our pocket when we walk by the others.