Human Rights Campaign has released its 2006-2007 “State of the Workplace for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Americans” report, according to HRC Back Story.

This year’s report found an increase in the number of Fortune 500 employers that offer domestic partner benefits since last year – up from 250 to 267.  This is also good news: almost 90% of Fortune 500 companies have anti-discrimination policies that include sexual orientation.

And just how is the state of the workplace for the “T” constituency of our community? It seems that things are looking positive. Today, 25% percent of Fortune 500-ranked companies prohibit discrimination against transgender employees and applicants, compared to just 1 percent at the beginning of 2000. We’ve still got many more strides to make in creating safe and welcoming workplaces for all transgender individuals, but this is certainly progress to be noted and cheered.

You can read the report (PDF).

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Unrelated HRC news just landed in my inbox: journalists have been added to the panel of the HRC/LOGO debate on August 9.

MTV Networks and The Human Rights Campaign Foundation today announced that journalist Margaret Carlson, on special assignment for Logo, will moderate the Presidential Forum on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues to take place in Los Angeles on August 9.  Both organizations, which are co-sponsoring the forum, also announced that openly gay Washington Post editorial page writer and Pulitzer Prize-winning and openly gay journalist Jonathan Capehart will join Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and Melissa Etheridge on the Forum panel.

…The official name for the televised program will be  The Visible Vote ’08: A Presidential Forum.