An employee group called McDonald’s Gay Lesbian Allies Network (MGLAN) has been headed by McDonald's administrators, including Darwin Choy, Regional Administrative Manager, San Francisco Bay Area. Choy also does fundraising for gay youth housing, health services (also known as recruiting).
Want to sound off to McDonald's? CLICK HERE to E-mail or call them.
-- From "McDonald’s: With a Fresh Serving of Respect and Acceptance" by Bob Witeck, CEO, Witeck-Combs Communications, Inc., posted at Echelon Magazine, The source for GLBT Business Professionals - 6/14/08
[Liz Winfeld, McDonald’s gay agenda indoctrinaire, said] “Consider McDonald’s startling pace since 1998 when Pat Harris, Chief Diversity Officer for McDonald’s, urged the adoption of their first inclusive non-discrimination language, followed by adoption of domestic partner benefits in 2002. Like a snowball rolling down a very big mountain, momentum has been won. All sorts of corporate leaders are learning to gauge the speed of progress and to jump on board.”
Winfeld also credits one of McDonald’s most senior executives for tackling this leadership: Brian Unger, Senior Vice President responsible for company store operations in the corporation’s West Division . . .
McDonald’s began offering equal same-sex partner health benefits in 2002, which was a very encouraging sign. However, Brian Unger and like-minded colleagues felt the company had to invest more of its internal education and understanding in connecting its LGBT [homosexual advocate] workforce face-to-face –- not an easy task given such a highly decentralized company with thousands of worksites, and varied needs of its many employees.
He hit upon a strategy to launch regionally focused MGLAN groups throughout the West Division to get the ball rolling. And rather than have senior management tell them how to respond or how to effect change, they decided to make this a far more organic and authentic process. Unger understood that real change and acceptance occurs when there is genuine buy-in and employee involvement. After all, who knows better about their own life experiences, households and aspirations than the employees themselves?
That is why, this past January, MGLAN was breathed into life with fully paid travel and accommodations for the first-ever conference, held in San Diego. Bringing fifty six LGBT [homosexual advocate] and allied employees together to talk, to learn, and to celebrate one another, Unger and his team decided to call the groundbreaking event a “Pioneer Summit.” His planning team consisted of gay and lesbian employees from the West Division and the company’s headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois. This group played a very large role and shared many insights that helped Unger move the process and avoid minefields.
Looking back at their first summit, Unger observed, “It was truly inspiring to see MGLAN members come together to share heartfelt, personal stories about their journeys, challenges and personal reflections. Better understanding these journeys, which reflect the mindset of our LGBT customers, will help us better grow our people in the restaurants and across the company. Most importantly, of course, it also helps us better understand and serve all our diverse customers across the United States.”
Given this inspirational and necessary launch, the McDonald’s mandate now is to discover how to make internal education [indoctrination] a reality throughout the corporation, how to properly add gender identity and expression to the company’s non-discrimination policies and how to handle transitions among their workforce. The exciting moment occurred, according to Winfeld and Unger, when all of McDonald’s management discovered how important, and how easy it is to put a human face on these questions – and then to set reachable and practical goals that can be modeled throughout the company in the years ahead.
As Winfeld noted too, more McDonald’s Divisions are taking notice. In addition to the contributions of Richard Ellis, Pat Harris and Jesse Pamperin, more leaders are emerging including Unger’s Central Division peer, Jim Johannesen and his team. Champions and allies in the corporate offices include Marcia Vargas, VP of Diversity, and Gus Viano and Kevin Bradley, Directors in McDonald’s Corporate Diversity office who are adept at challenging long-held beliefs that a company as deeply embedded in the American consciousness as McDonald’s must tread lightly into this aspect of workforce and workplace diversity.
“It is incredibly important that all of these people get their due because they are, in large part, sticking their necks into uncharted territory,” said Liz Winfeld. “What McDonald’s is doing, in fact, mirrors the marketplace – if you do something first, faster, better then you will win. MGLAN throughout the regions is a winning strategy.”
To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.
Want to sound off to McDonald's? CLICK HERE to E-mail or call them.
-- From "McDonald’s: With a Fresh Serving of Respect and Acceptance" by Bob Witeck, CEO, Witeck-Combs Communications, Inc., posted at Echelon Magazine, The source for GLBT Business Professionals - 6/14/08
[Liz Winfeld, McDonald’s gay agenda indoctrinaire, said] “Consider McDonald’s startling pace since 1998 when Pat Harris, Chief Diversity Officer for McDonald’s, urged the adoption of their first inclusive non-discrimination language, followed by adoption of domestic partner benefits in 2002. Like a snowball rolling down a very big mountain, momentum has been won. All sorts of corporate leaders are learning to gauge the speed of progress and to jump on board.”
Winfeld also credits one of McDonald’s most senior executives for tackling this leadership: Brian Unger, Senior Vice President responsible for company store operations in the corporation’s West Division . . .
McDonald’s began offering equal same-sex partner health benefits in 2002, which was a very encouraging sign. However, Brian Unger and like-minded colleagues felt the company had to invest more of its internal education and understanding in connecting its LGBT [homosexual advocate] workforce face-to-face –- not an easy task given such a highly decentralized company with thousands of worksites, and varied needs of its many employees.
He hit upon a strategy to launch regionally focused MGLAN groups throughout the West Division to get the ball rolling. And rather than have senior management tell them how to respond or how to effect change, they decided to make this a far more organic and authentic process. Unger understood that real change and acceptance occurs when there is genuine buy-in and employee involvement. After all, who knows better about their own life experiences, households and aspirations than the employees themselves?
That is why, this past January, MGLAN was breathed into life with fully paid travel and accommodations for the first-ever conference, held in San Diego. Bringing fifty six LGBT [homosexual advocate] and allied employees together to talk, to learn, and to celebrate one another, Unger and his team decided to call the groundbreaking event a “Pioneer Summit.” His planning team consisted of gay and lesbian employees from the West Division and the company’s headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois. This group played a very large role and shared many insights that helped Unger move the process and avoid minefields.
Looking back at their first summit, Unger observed, “It was truly inspiring to see MGLAN members come together to share heartfelt, personal stories about their journeys, challenges and personal reflections. Better understanding these journeys, which reflect the mindset of our LGBT customers, will help us better grow our people in the restaurants and across the company. Most importantly, of course, it also helps us better understand and serve all our diverse customers across the United States.”
Given this inspirational and necessary launch, the McDonald’s mandate now is to discover how to make internal education [indoctrination] a reality throughout the corporation, how to properly add gender identity and expression to the company’s non-discrimination policies and how to handle transitions among their workforce. The exciting moment occurred, according to Winfeld and Unger, when all of McDonald’s management discovered how important, and how easy it is to put a human face on these questions – and then to set reachable and practical goals that can be modeled throughout the company in the years ahead.
As Winfeld noted too, more McDonald’s Divisions are taking notice. In addition to the contributions of Richard Ellis, Pat Harris and Jesse Pamperin, more leaders are emerging including Unger’s Central Division peer, Jim Johannesen and his team. Champions and allies in the corporate offices include Marcia Vargas, VP of Diversity, and Gus Viano and Kevin Bradley, Directors in McDonald’s Corporate Diversity office who are adept at challenging long-held beliefs that a company as deeply embedded in the American consciousness as McDonald’s must tread lightly into this aspect of workforce and workplace diversity.
“It is incredibly important that all of these people get their due because they are, in large part, sticking their necks into uncharted territory,” said Liz Winfeld. “What McDonald’s is doing, in fact, mirrors the marketplace – if you do something first, faster, better then you will win. MGLAN throughout the regions is a winning strategy.”
To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.
UPDATE 9/09/08 - Read this article, also.
