Accept Victory
Biz backing for Gay Pride shows we won
ONE hour passed. Then a second.
When the rainbow-clad floats lining DC’s streets still showed no sign of moving by hour three, we entertained the prospect that some antiLGBT fanatic had disrupted the progression of the Capital Pride Parade.
The delay was not caused by the Westboro Baptist Church, nor the Family Research Council. By now, you’ve likely heard that the radically liberal group No Justice No Pride had formed a human barricade, shouting down Capital Pride’s corporate sponsors and decrying the presence of law enforcement while preventing a parade of more than 2,000 drag queens, queer dance troupes, lesbian musicians and LGBT organizations of all political stripes from celebrating their right to exist.
On Sunday, No Justice No Pride plans to repeat the spectacle at NYC Pride — its anti-capitalist message overshadowing thousands of celebrants who quite literally put their lives on the line fighting for a world where the retailers of mainstream America could proudly fly the rainbow flag.
It’s become the grand irony of the far left: Businesses must bake our cakes and photograph our weddings, but they cannot dare offer public — or financial — support for the LGBT cause.
In reality, the “corporate America” the left now derides has proven itself a staunch ally of the LGBT community time and again.
In the absence of federal LGBT non-discrimination legislation, corporate America led the charge to protect employees and their partners.
According to the Human Rights Campaign’s 2017 Corporate Equality Index, a record 515 major companies earned a perfect score for implementing policies prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation, extending medical benefits to LGBT employees’ spouses and partners and offering transgenderinclusive health-insurance coverage, among a number of other factors.
Worth noting: All 10 of the Capital Pride corporate sponsors that No Justice No Pride singled out in an incendiary social media campaign were among those with the distinction of a perfect score.
Big Business’ support of the LGBT community extends far beyond the bounds of its own employees.
Fully 379 American businesses submitted an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to rule in favor of marriage equality in 2015.
Support didn’t halt there: Almost five dozen companies representing $670 billion in revenue recently filed a brief in support of transgender student Gavin Grimm in his fight against a school board hellbent on denying him his dignity.
Within one month of North Carolina adopting last year’s notorious “bathroom bill,” the largest independent production studio, Lionsgate, canceled plans to film in Charlotte.
PayPal scrapped plans to build a new facility in the state, and Deutsche Bank froze plans to expand an existing technology development center in Cary, North Carolina.
In fact, 68 major companies joined to legally register their disapproval of the law, HB 2, in a strong showing of solidarity with the LGBT community.
As so-called “religious free-
dom” bills crop up in southern states, major business owners have been among their most vocal opponents.
Georgia’s governor, Nathan Deal, faced monumental pressure from Salesforce, Disney, Unilever, Intel and close to 500 other companies when the discriminatory legislation landed on his own desk.
Business and community objections successfully curtailed similar bills in Colorado and Wyoming.
These are the organizations branded by No Justice No Pride as “death merchants”? Give me a break!
Corporate America has played a key role in shaping positive opinions of the LGBT community in areas where individuals may not feel safe to come out.
As New Yorkers attend Pride this weekend (taking selfies on iPhones, pulling floats with Ford trucks, staying in Marriott hotels), it’s important to be mindful of — and grateful for — the fact that without corporate America and capitalism, our nation’s move toward full LGBT equality would be neither as fast nor as fulsome.
For that, this LGBT American would like to say, “Thank you.”