Baltimore’s LGBT+ owned businesses now have the same status as women and minority owned businesses for the purposes of supplier diversity, and will receive a certain percentage of city contract work, thanks to a new executive order signed by Baltimore city mayor Catherine Pugh. The move will buoy the small business community in Baltimore, and experts expect that other cities will follow suit.
The order makes Baltimore the largest American city to include LGBT+ businesses in its supplier diversity program. Jonathan D. Lovitz, senior Vice President of the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce said of Mayor Pugh: “She clearly recognizes the importance of including the LGBT business community (and the $1.7 TRILLION we add to the economy every year) in the city’s economic development plan.”
Read more at the Baltimore Sun.