(Picture: Lucy Nicholson/REUTERS)

At last some good diversity news from Starbucks.

The coffee chain is thought to be the first corporation in the world to start covering gender reassignment surgeries for its transgender employees.

In a press release, Starbucks announced that it has been working with the World Professional Association for Transgender Health to come up with a new health insurance plan.

It’s actually offered employees health insurance that covers the procedures since 2012 but this new plan will also cover procedures from US transgender employees that were previously deemed to be ‘cosmetic’.


Now, Starbucks workers will be able to claim for top surgery (breast augmentation/reduction), facial feminisation and hair transplants.



And the company says it’s bringing in trained advocates to help guide those transitioning.

Vice president of benefits at Starbucks, Ron Crawford, said that the decision was driven ‘by the company’s desire to provide truly inclusive coverage, and by powerful conversations with transgender [employees] about how those benefits would allow them to truly be who they are’.

if you listen closely you can hear the sound of thousands of trans people all submitting their Starbucks job applications right now https://t.co/RI9pH8R1BB — Riley J. Dennis (@RileyJayDennis) June 27, 2018

While other companies have been known to offer transgender-related medical services to employees, none have offered to cover this number of surgeries to employees.

Tate Buhrmester is one of the company’s transgender employees.

They say: ‘Starbucks is taking a stand and standing up for trans people and saying that our procedures aren’t just cosmetic — they are lifesaving. They’re affirming.

‘They’re vitally important to trans people and it’s not something just to be seen as a cosmetic procedure that’s optional, because for a lot of people, it’s not optional for them.’

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