September 28th

09-28-1877 Barilla – An Italian and European food company headquartered in Parma, Italy. It is the world’s leading pasta maker. When Guido Barilla, chairman of the company, mentioned on an Italian radio program in 2013 that he’d rather feature “traditional” families than same-sex couples in Barilla advertisements, the international outcry came fast and furious. To the company’s credit, they quickly apologized — twice —- and didn’t stop there. Within weeks, Barilla’s leadership rolled out a lot of corporate culture fixes, including the appointment of its first-ever Chief Diversity Officer, and a worldwide campaign to engage and inform customers about the importance of LGBT inclusivity. Just one year later, the company earned a perfect 100 rating from the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, which ranks major corporations on how supportive they are of LGBT employees. Barilla has kept that top rating for two years running.

09-28-2012 Austin becomes the first city in Texas to endorse marriage equality, with a unanimous vote by the City Council.