NC business exec: The patchwork of LGBTQ+ protections in NC isn’t enough.

More than 300 BASF employees live and work in the Charlotte area, and an additional 1,400 in the Raleigh-Durham area, each contributing every day to fulfill our purpose of ensuring a more sustainable future for us all. This is a responsibility we take seriously, and with great pride.

So too is our commitment to creating the conditions in which employees can perform at their best, and that means ensuring we have policies in place that allow all members of our team, including LGBTQ+ employees, to go about their work and lives free from discrimination.

For me, this is more than just a workplace issue, it is a very personal matter. As a godparent of a 17-year-old non-binary youth who will soon graduate high school, I want to do all I can to ensure their choice of college, field of study and overall psychological well-being are not in any way challenged or limited by bias. They should have the freedom to authentically be who they want to be, in life and in their career.

This is also a core element of the BASF culture, and hugely beneficial to our success. The policies we have in place are essential to ensuring our employees feel safe and welcome. They create an environment where our employees have the support they need to succeed on the job every day, and they reinforce our core values of equality and fair play for all.

But right now, despite our commitment to fostering a workplace free from discrimination, we recognize that many of our employees still face the threat of discrimination when they leave our sites. There are no comprehensive nondiscrimination protections in place in North Carolina.

While Charlotte and many Triangle cities offer some degree of protection, there’s no consistency across the state or the nation. Instead, we’re left with a patchwork of protections that are both confusing and unsustainable. This patchwork means that an LGBTQ+ BASF employee may be protected from discrimination when they’re out to dinner with coworkers in Charlotte, but not when they travel across some other parts of our state. In fact, they and their families are not protected if they live even a few minutes outside of the city.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. BASF’s policies reflect the fundamental values held by a majority of Americans, 83% of whom support policies protecting LGBTQ+ people from discrimination, including 67% of North Carolinians. That support is just one of the reasons we proudly back national legal protections against discrimination.

We’ve also found that nondiscrimination protections are crucial to our ability to attract and retain the highly trained workforce we need to conduct our work successfully. However, LGBTQ+-inclusive policies should not be limited to protecting workers and their families when they’re in our places of work. Protection against discrimination should be far-reaching and consistent, ensuring that the talent we want and need to attract views BASF and the communities where we work as welcoming and safe.

The benefits are quite clear. Comprehensive protections for LGBTQ+ people against discrimination would not only make North Carolina a more attractive destination for the best and brightest talent, it would also strengthen our state’s economy. At the same time, it would help companies like ours create the conditions where employees can truly thrive and achieve their fullest potential, which benefits us all.