Foxwoods Resort Casino and MGM Grand at Foxwoods have adopted new policies aimed at protecting the rights of their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees.

The casinos and the Connecticut Alliance for Business Opportunities announced the initiative this week in connection with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe's recent ratification of new tribal laws and June's designation as National Gay and Lesbian Pride Month. The tribe owns the casinos.

"The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation is no stranger to discrimination and the struggle for dignity and equality, dating as far back as the early 17th century," Robert Victoria, the casinos' chief marketing officer, said in a statement.

"At Foxwoods Resort Casino, we sympathize with the plight of any people striving to receive the dignity, acknowledgement and respect pursued by humankind as a whole, and we are proud to enact this initiative on behalf of our employees, as well as the LGBT community at large."

The legislation, which modifies Foxwoods' existing Employment Equality Policy to include "sexual orientation, gender identity and expression," will afford Foxwoods' lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender staff the dignity and respect extended to other minority groups represented among Foxwoods' more than 8,000 employees, and serve to advance the property's overall identity as a LGBT-friendly property for guests and the greater lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, the casino said.

Foxwoods' Procurement Minority Vendor Program, which identifies potential minority-owned business partners throughout the region to ensure equal business representation for all groups, will now include LGBT as an official category.