Massachusetts Misses Healey’s LGBT Business Spending Goals

Two years ago, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey announced an initiative "aimed at expanding opportunities for diverse and small businesses to provide goods and services to state agencies and local governments."

The administration updated the Commonwealth's Supplier Diversity Program to, for the first time, include spending benchmarks for LGBT-owned Business Enterprises.

Healey's official Mass.gov website included a "new interactive online map" to help state and local governments, prime bidders, and contractors identify certified diverse business partners."

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"Massachusetts is home to so many wonderful, diverse, and small businesses who are truly the backbone of our communities and our economy," Healey said.

"Our administration is committed to increasing opportunities for them to do business with the state, which will not only help their businesses grow but will also support the state's equitable economic development," she said.

WGBH.org reported, "Massachusetts fell far short of its new goal for hiring LGBT-owned businesses for state contracts last year, according to a recent report from the state's Supplier Diversity Office."

GBH reported that Healey's goal was to "spend $18 million annually on contracts with lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender-owned businesses." In fiscal year 2024, "state agencies only spent $9 million with these companies."

The updated guidance for the Commonwealth Supplier Diversity Program also included, for the first time, Disability-owned Business Enterprises.

In announcing the 2023 initiative, Healey said, "We are proud to be expanding the state's spending benchmarks to include businesses owned by LGBTQIA+ individuals and individuals with disabilities, as well as launching a new online tool that we believe will be critical to helping us meet these goals."