(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pfizer Inc today announced that it has earned a score of 100 — the highest possible — in the 2010 Corporate Equality Index, which evaluates U.S.-based businesses on their treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) employees, investors and consumers.

The Corporate Equality Index — published annually by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRCF), the largest LGBT advocacy organization in the United States — rates businesses using a scale of 0-100. For the 2010 edition, 590 businesses were rated, and the average rating was 86. Pfizer was the first pharmaceutical company to score 100 and has achieved a 100 rating for six consecutive years.

“Pfizer operates in just about every nation with a flag and a seat in the United Nations,” said Pfizer Chief Diversity Officer Karen Boykin-Towns. “Our corporate culture is rich in unique perspectives from what may be the world’s most diverse colleague population. Our goal now is to broaden our action beyond the traditional talent perspective and use our remarkable diversity to transform the ways we bring better health to more of the world’s people.”

Pfizer was recognized both for its diversity and inclusion platform, which includes sexual orientation and gender identity, and for its equal opportunity policy, which bars discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. The company also offers benefits coverage for same-sex domestic partners where legally permissible, donates resources to LGBT community- and health-related organizations, and sponsors various site-based LGBT colleague resource groups.

Employers ranked in the Corporate Equality Index are chosen from Fortune magazine’s 1,000 largest publicly-traded businesses; Forbes magazine’s 200 largest privately-owned firms; and American Lawyer magazine’s top 200 revenue-grossing law firms. All ranked employers must be based in the United States and have 500 or more full-time employees.

“Even in the most challenging economy, leading employers are forging ahead of federal and state law to recruit and retain a diverse workforce — regardless of employees’ sexual orientation and gender identity or expression,” said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign. “These [top-rated businesses], and all employers actively working to improve their rating, set an example for all U.S. employers, including the federal government.”

Pfizer Inc: Working together for a healthier world™

Founded in 1849, Pfizer is the world's premier biopharmaceutical company taking new approaches to better health. We discover, develop, manufacture and deliver quality, safe and effective prescription medicines to treat and help prevent disease for both people and animals. We also partner with healthcare providers, governments and local communities around the world to expand access to our medicines and to provide better quality health care and health system support. At Pfizer, colleagues in more than 90 countries work every day to help people stay happier and healthier longer and to reduce the human and economic burden of disease worldwide.