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|| a^ublic high schools; libraries and
I ^^■museums; public and private colleges
B.^Hand universities; hospitals; founda
tions and charities — the list of beneficiaries
of the legacy of R.J. Reynolds, his family and
the Winston-Salem tobacco company he
founded more than a century ago is long and
valuable — perhaps endless.
There is hardly a Carolina soul who will
debate the positive, economic influence
i V. rcr did smoking become part of us?
I Kll 11* *
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amounts of harm tobacco use causes in North
Carolina and to the LGBT community.”
In a late February letter sent to the Human
Rights Campaign — copied to Q-Notes and
others — Lee outlined his argument for
reducing Reynolds’ CEI score.
“While it is perfectly legitimate to report
on the workplace policies of the tobacco
industry” Lee wrote to HRC,“I believe you
may have overlooked the evidence on corpo
rate responsibility and inadver
tently and incorrectly given a per
fect score to Reynolds American
Tobacco (sic).”
Released annually, the CEI
ranks Fortune 500 companies,
and others, according to the
LGBT-friendliness of corporate
policies and practices. Scoring
criteria in the “corporate responsi
bility” section of the CEI requires
that a company must exhibit
“responsible behavior toward the
LGBT community)’and show that
it “does not engage in action that
would undermine LGBT equality)’
If Fifteen points are deducted from
the scores of corporations found
to be engaging in harmful anti-
LGBT activity.
Lee said that Reynolds
American, and other companies,
have exhibited poor corporate
responsibility toward their LGBT
customers. In his letter, Lee said'
14 MARCH 21 .2009 • QNotes
An anti-smoking campaign targeted
to LGBT San Franciscans by SF Pride.
Reynolds and other Tobacco Road tycoons
had on this state, its people or its society
and government. But one openly gay
researcher at the Tar Heel State’s premier
“public ivy” isn’t convinced that Reynolds
American, the tobacco company’s corporate
parent, is deserving of all the praise it’s
been getting from the Human Rights
Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT advocacy
organization.
Joseph Lee, a social research specialist in
the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Department of Family Medicine’s Tobacco
Prevention and Evaluation Program, says that
Reynolds American shouldn’t have received a
perfect 100 score in the 2009 HRC Corporate
Equality Index (CEI).
“Being from Madison County, I am not
denying the long heritage of tobacco in North
Carolina,” Lee told Q-Notes in an interview via
email. “But, today, we cannot deny the huge
When did smoking become part of us?
—III » II II*
that the company has shown “irresponsible
and cynical behavior” toward LGBT people
through its marketing of a “product... direct
ly and unequivocally linked to death and dis
ability.” Lee says that Reynolds American’s
actions have created a “health inequality” and
that “disproportionate numbers of lesbian
women and gay men smoke and suffer from
the resulting death and disability.”
Lee contended that his main opposition to
Reynolds’perfect 100 score stems from evi
dence of the company’s history of marketing
has increased tobacco use among LGBT peo-