BUSINESS NEWS

• Rock Edwards, manager of the Prudential Gary Greene, Realtors Inner Loop office, announces the association of Charlie Grider, who has been active in Houston’s real estate market for over eight years as an apartment locator. He was most recently president of Best of Texas Apartment Locators, a division of JVL Investments.com, and prior to that was assistant manager of Find-It Apartment Locators where he served as corporate relocation liaison to several local corporations.

Grider is excited about joining Prudential Gary Greene, Realtors and working with their corporate relocation program. Grider says, "I am looking forward to expanding my corporate database and representing Prudential to an ever-growing list of companies." Grider can be reached at Prudential Gary Greene, Realtors at 2900 Weslayan, Suite 550, Houston, Texas 77027 or by calling 713/961-1722.

• The Vermont Teddy Bear Company is coming out with a Pride Bear. Dressed in jeans and a white T-shirt, the bear also "bears" a rainbow tattoo permanently embroidered on its arm. Marketing director Irene Steiner said the time has come for this design. "The Pride Bear is a logical addition to our product line. We’ve offered same-sex bride and groom bears for several years now but realized there was a need for a specific bear to help the GLBT community communicate in a fun and personal way." For $75 through the company’s Bear-Gram gift delivery service, the Pride Bear can be delivered anywhere. For more information, call 1-800-829-BEAR or visit the website at www.VermontTeddyBear.com.

• The Human Rights Campaign recently reported that the prevalence of "family-friendly" workplace benefits confirms that coverage of domestic partners is increasing at a rapid pace, but it also points up how many benefits are routinely denied to gay and lesbian workers because they cannot get married. The 2001 Benefits Survey released last month by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that 25 percent of respondents reported that they offer domestic partner benefits to opposite-sex partners and that 16 percent reported offering these benefits to same-sex partners. In 2000, SHRM found 10 percent of respondents offered DP benefits. (2001 was the first year that SHRM asked separate questions on same-sex and opposite-sex coverage.)

"This growth rate is phenomenal, and confirms what we at the Human Rights Campaign have observed," said Kim I. Mills, HRC’s education director. "Domestic partner benefits are on their way to becoming a standard business practice because employers are learning by experience that they help attract and keep good employees."

The SHRM study found that organizations with 2,501 or more employees are more likely to offer domestic partner benefits to same-sex partners than their smaller counterparts. The study also found that, out of 12 market sectors polled, the high-tech and computer industry sector was most likely to offer domestic partner benefits for both same-sex and opposite-sex partners. Market sectors that were least inclined to offer the benefits included manufacturing; finance, insurance and real estate; and government.

"Again, this closely tracks the data we have been collecting for years through HRC WorkNet, our workplace advocacy project," Mills said. SHRM’s study measured the spread of a variety of what it termed "family-friendly" workplace benefits, such as dependent care flexible spending accounts, flextime, adoption assistance, financial aid to employees’ families, and even pre-paid funeral assistance.

The SHRM questionnaire did not specifically define domestic partner benefits–although HRC has defined that term to include health insurance coverage at a minimum. "We have found that many employers define ‘family’ quite narrowly, so that many of the benefits listed in the SHRM report would probably not be offered to gay and lesbian couples," Mills said.

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