Many of you were up at the crack of dawn last Friday standing in lines at Target and Wal-Mart or at your favorite mall to take advantage of holiday sales. Some of you were out buying big ticket items, and some of you were out buying small gifts for loved ones. Regardless of what you are putting under the tree this year; I am sure you can all agree that you should purchase it from companies that share and value your commitment to diversity.

Every year the Human Rights Campaign issues a buyers guide to help guide you to the choices you make in your daily living.

Companies with 500 or more employees are asked to participate in a survey and then rated on their diversity. This year HRC has coded the companies by color Green for companies you can rest assured are working to fulfilling equality in the workplace, Yellow for those who are improving their diversity, and Red for those companies that did not respond to the requests for a response or have a serious need to improve conditions for GLBT workers at their companies.

In addition to retail stores, the guide ranks banks, restaurants, hotels. I discovered that Pride has a banking relationship with a bank that has a perfect equality score, but I personally bank with a company that needs work. Rest assured I will be evaluating where I do my banking in 2009.

On an interesting note, Chase bank scored a perfect 100% on the equality index while Huntington and BB&T banks scored 75% and 48% respectively. Those are the three largest national and commercial banks in the Kanawha valley.

Take a look at the guide and make important purchases and day to day living matter. The guide can be found at http://www.hrc.org/buyersguide2009