people and community celebrating 30 years of championing rights for LGBTQ+ employees

Mike Craig remembers stepping into his first role at Chevron in 1991 and joining the newly formed Lesbian and Gay Employee Association (CLGEA).

“I joined just to see what was happening but with no preset ideas about the group, because the membership list was not public and there weren’t any PRIDE activities in Houston,” Craig said.

Two years later, Chevron became the first major American oil and gas company to add sexual orientation to our nondiscrimination policy and Equal Employment Opportunity statement. This opened the door to other key diversity and inclusion milestones throughout the company.

“It was the springboard that allowed us to begin discussions about domestic partnership benefits,” recalled Craig, a customer experience advisor in Houston and longtime member of CLGEA, now called the Chevron PRIDE employee network.

In this 2018 video, employees shared the history of Chevron’s PRIDE employee network and their experiences of diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

As president of the PRIDE network from 2003–2008, Craig continued to advance the company’s momentum in human rights equity. He played a leading role in evolving our nondiscrimination policies to include gender identity and gender expression.

“We talked to several company leaders about the transgender community so everyone could develop a better understanding about inclusion and how to look at the full spectrum of employees’ identities,” he said. “When you get the right information in front of the right people, you get the right choices.”

In 2005, the PRIDE network published the first edition of “Transgender @ Chevron”, a guide for transitioning employees and their allies. This was shared with the Human Rights Campaign Foundation as a model for employee handbooks.

Additionally, the PRIDE network was recognized that year as the “Outstanding Employee Resource Group” by Out & Equal—a global nonprofit that advocates for LGBTQ+ workplace equality.

Chevron’s other major inclusion milestones include adding fully inclusive transgender wellness benefits in 2011 and adding LGBTQ+ businesses to our supplier diversity program in 2012. We also recently received recognition, for the 17th consecutive year, from The Human Rights Campaign Foundation for our ongoing efforts to ensure equality for LGBTQ+ employees and their families.