Thursday, February 18, 2016

Panasonic extends benefits to gay couples, bars LGBT discrimination among its 250,000 worldwide employees

The change will happen this April.
According to the Mainichi Shinbun (click English Version), the company has received numerous requests for this policy change from employees in addition to facing pressure as an Olympics sponsor — the Olympics Charter forbids discrimination of any kind, including discrimination based on sexual orientation.
AKSARBENT was one of Panasonic's 2013 critics:
     Today, Towleroad published a post based on Buzzfeed's survey of the reaction of Olympic sponsors to the threats Russia has made to arrest gay athletes and the International Olympic Committee's threats to disqualify athletes who self-identify as gay, which it evidently considers a political "statement."
     Olympic "marquee sponsor" Panasonic's statement on the controversy was that the company “has no involvement in, and is not in a position to comment on political and social matters related to the Olympic Games or specific governments in any country or region.”
     Contrast Panasonic's "Go screw yourselves — not only won't we defend you, we won't acknowledge that homos exist" attitude with GE's public statement: “...we expect the IOC to uphold human rights in every aspect of the Games.”
     Remember that when you go camera shopping, boys and girls.
     This is wonderful news, as Pansonic's GH line (current model: GH4) includes the best moderately priced video-capable cameras sold in this country in the last several years.
     They regularly garner better reviews for their video quality than Nikon and Canon DSLRs which cost three or more times the purchase price of the Panasonics.
     Below is video from a discontinued GH2. You really can't buy a better video-capable digital camera with a decent-sized sensor for anything close to the money, and now you can do so from a company which has (finally) committed to do right by its gay employees.



     Sometimes the sound in these Lumix wonders eclipses even the exemplary video:



Below, bathtub buddies Chris and Jordan reviewed the GH4, which they really, really like.


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