In honor of Pride Month, five ways RBC Wealth Management supports LGBT+ equality

As executive sponsor of the RBC Wealth Management – U.S. Pride Employee Resource Group, we celebrate and support LGBT+ equality throughout the year. However, June is a particularly important month to emphasize how our commitment to diversity and inclusion is embedded in our culture and values, and we firmly believe in making a positive impact in the communities where we live and work. In honor of Pride Month, as well as today's landmark Supreme Court decision on civil rights, here are just a few of the ways we support LGBT+ equality in our firm and in our community:

1.     RBC’s core value of Diversity & Inclusion. RBC is deeply committed to building and fostering an inclusive culture where differences in gender, sexual orientation and identity are valued and embraced.

2.     The PRIDE Employee Resource Group. Open to all employees, PRIDE fosters a culture of inclusion in the workplace by providing support, activities and networking opportunities for LGBT+ and allied employees. PRIDE also helps raise awareness by providing education on LGBT+ issues.

3.     Employee benefits. RBC supports all employee families through paid parental leave and adoption assistance, and offers transgender-inclusive health care benefits such as gender reassignment coverage.

4.     Gender-neutral bathrooms. Our Minneapolis headquarters is equipped with gender-neutral bathrooms, and in 2016 we signed an open letter opposing House Bill 2 (HB2), a North Carolina law preventing transgender individuals from using the bathroom corresponding with their gender identity.

5.     Equality Act. In April 2019, RBC joined the HRC’s Business Coalition for the Equality Act, supporting federal protections for the LGBT+ community.

Our firm’s continued support of the LGBT+ community has earned RBC Wealth Management – U.S. a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index for 10 years. The annual CEI evaluates companies on LGBT-related company policies and practices.

As we head further into Pride Month, it is important to remember that social change is often built on the pain and outrage sparked by difficult moments in time. George Floyd's tragic death last month is one of those moments that has significantly advanced the movement to end anti-Black racism – not just here in the U.S., but across the globe. It is important to remember that the revolutionary events at the Stonewall Inn in 1969 were spearheaded by many LGBT+ people of color, and that none of the progress made for the acceptance and equality of LGBT+ people over the past 51 years would be possible if not for the action and courage of those protesters.

There can be no Pride if it is not intersectional. We are together in Pride.

For more information, visit https://www.rbcwealthmanagement.com/us/en/about-us/inclusion-and-diversity/

RBC Wealth Management, a division of RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Member NYSE/FINRA/SIPC.