Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Big Business speaks out for the American LGBT community

Hot on the heels of an entry about corporations taking the lead in renewable energy investment, comes news that big business is at the forefront of the American fight against sexual discrimination.
Several states have passed, or at least attempted to pass, legislation aimed at curbing LGBT rights in recent months. North Carolina's "bathroom bill" HB2 (which bars local LGBT anti-discrimination ordinances, and stipulates that transgender people must use the washrooms appropriate for their birth sex) has received the most press, but South Carolina. Mississippi, South Dakota, Georgia, Missouri and Tennessee (yes, the predictably conservative redneck states) have all either passed such laws recently, or are in the process of attempting to.
Enter the politically correct modern corporation: PayPal and Lionsgate both cancelled plans to build a new operations centre in North Carolina over the issue, Deutsche Bank suspended plans for expansion there, Apple, American Airlinesty and Wells Fargo Bank have weighed in on the  matter, and over 100 executives from companies like Goldman Sachs, Hyatt Hotels and Bank of America have signed an open letter opposing the new bill; Disney has threatened to pull out of Georgia over a bill to allow businesses to deny services to individuals based on the business owners' religious beliefs, as did AMC studio and tech giant Salesforce (the state's Governor later vetoed the bill based on these interventions).
Other big players have also made their views known: the NFL put an Atlanta, Georgia Super Bowl in jeopardy over the issue; rock stars like Bruce Springsteen, Bryan Adams, Ringo Starr and Jimmy Buffet (effectively corporations in their own right) have cancelled or postponed shows in some of the offending states; local governments in cities like New York and Boston have made a stand, directing government employees to effectively boycott the states; etc.
Some people seem a bit concerned that unelected corporations meddling in politics is in some way undemocratic. Me, I'm all for it. I see it as a bit of pay-back for all the undemocratic politicking perpetrated by the big oil and gas companies for all these years.

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