FORT WORTH, Texas — American Airlines has been honored once again by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) with the highest possible rating in the prestigious 2020 Corporate Equality Index (CEI). American was the only airline to achieve a perfect score when the CEI launched in 2002 and continues to be one of only a handful of corporations – and the only airline — to do so every year since.

The CEI is a nationally recognized benchmark that evaluates America’s top workplaces and their inclusion of LGBTQ employees and their allies. Companies like American that earn the top CEI score of 100% also are named the “Best Places to Work” in the U.S.

“American’s continued support of our LGBTQ team members and customers is unwavering,” said Patrick O’Keeffe, American’s Senior Vice President of People. “It’s always an honor to be recognized for the actions we take to foster diversity, equity and inclusion.”

American has long been an ally for LGBTQ team members and customers. The airline was the first major U.S. airline to protect LGBTQ team members by including gender identity and sexual orientation in workplace nondiscrimination policies and strongly opposed discriminatory and anti-LGBTQ legislation proposed in Washington, D.C., and individual states, including Texas, Arizona and North Carolina.

Recently, the airline has taken public stands for transgender rights, endorsed the Equality Act and was the first global airline to endorse the historic United Nations LGBTI Standards of Conduct for Business, aimed at tackling discrimination globally against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people globally.