More than 80 percent of companies in the Fortune 500 now ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. And some 249 of the Fortune 500 offer health and other benefits to the same-sex partners of their employees. That's up from just 28 a decade ago, writes Fortune magazine columnist Marc Gunther. He also notes the efforts of the Human Rights Campaign to rate companies on their gay-friendly and gay-equitable policies. HRC head Joe Solmonese even seems to get it right (not left) this time, when he states that "Corporate America is ahead of government in providing equal treatment for GLBT people because it knows that fairness is good for business."
Last year, Wal-Mart, America's biggest employer and a frequent punching bag for anti-free-market activists, agreed to support a network for its gay (and lesbian, and bisexual, and transgender) workers, joining such firms as Citigroup, DuPont, and IBM. "All these trends are moving in one direction-towards more rights for gay and lesbian people," writes Gunther, adding, "This is remarkable, given the setbacks that gay rights have taken in the political arena, especially around the issue of gay marriage."
Gee, maybe the market really does know more than ego-inflated politicians.
The column also notes that the religious rightists are
attempting to instigate a backlash, via shareholder resolutions
seeking to reverse corporate domestic partner benefit policies
that, as they so charminly put it, "pay people who engage in
homosexual sex acts." Do these people ever think about
anything other than what gay folks do in bed?
--Stephen H. Miller
19 Comments for “Supporting Gays Is Good Business.”
posted by Lori Heine on
It is very important, to the anti-gay agenda, that they not admit that homosexuality is primarily about loving someone of the opposite sex rather than simply having sex with them. If all we wanted to do was sneak around in the shadows and have sex, we wouldn’t have to come out, identify ourselves with an embattled and slandered minority and get treated like crap. Sneaking around in the shadows is something you don’t need to be gay to do — as many straight people are quite adept at it.
I hardly think I’m the only gay person who came out to marry for love.
Anti-gay straights have their brains in their shorts. What they think about us really reveals very little about us — and a great deal about themselves.
posted by Jason on
“All these trends are moving in one direction?towards more rights for gay and lesbian people,” writes Gunther, adding, “This is remarkable, given the setbacks that gay rights have taken in the political arena, especially around the issue of gay marriage.”
I think this, at least partly, illustrates the disparity between the political arena and the reality of whats going on in America.
It seems that the majority supports gay rights, but the White House does not listen to them and only listens to the small cadre of fundamentalists they wish to appease.
posted by North Dallas Thirty on
Actually, no, Jason; it simply shows that the majority of Americans, while not viewing gays as different in the workplace, see them as vastly different in other senses. Furthermore, since Democrats also oppose gay marriage, are they “only listening to the small cadre of fundamentalists”?
What you need to remember is that professional victim organizations like HRC constantly broadcast contradictory messages; they trumpet how many companies have policies, but then loudly shriek about how antigay firings are endemic and how thousands and thousands of gays are losing their jobs every day.
Since companies by and large seem to be working the matter out quite nicely by themselves, there’s no particular reason for the government to interfere with that. The White House also knows that doing nice things for gays is a lost cause; gays will never support Republicans and will always support Democrats, regardless of what Democrats do.
So, in short, there’s no real political, moral, or other imperative to do anything else.
posted by North Dallas Thirty on
Anti-gay straights have their brains in their shorts. What they think about us really reveals very little about us — and a great deal about themselves.
Just remember, Lori; it’s rather silly to criticize other people for obsessing about your sex life when you’re making cracks about theirs.
posted by Jason on
Oh boohoo. Cry me a river, hillbilly.
posted by North Dallas Thirty on
Thank you for so nicely illustrating my point, Jason. It’s always amused me how so many gays will whine how “no one does what we want” one minute, then insult somebody the next.
posted by Jason on
Well, I tend to be pretty one sided in that I do mroe insulting than whatever else it is you’re trying to accuse me of.
Right wing ideology among gays tends to put me in one of those “when will the asteroid finally hit the earth” moods.
Actually, rah rah free market fetishism among anyone does that to me.
So does the “racism is institutional” and “white privelege etc. etc.” pseudo anti racist ideology.
Especially when they go on about “cultural appropriation.
posted by MN Skeptic on
SM: Do these people ever think about anything other than what gay folks do in bed?
MN Skeptic: No.
posted by Lori Heine on
“Just remember, Lori; it’s rather silly to criticize other people for obsessing about your sex life when you’re making cracks about theirs.”
I wasn’t the one who originally brought it up.
Getting back to the question in Mr. Miller’s post, which was whether anti-gay people ever think about anything besides what we do in bed, I believe, NDT, that my remarks were quite to the point.
Actually, I consider it quite rude for someone to speak of “what I do in bed,” as if they know whereof they speak. I’m not in the habit of bringing up the topic of what ANYBODY does in their most intimate moments. But when somebody else brings up the subject concerning me, I don’t feel I’m at all out of line to form some opinions about them.
posted by Lori Heine on
Actually, I am in the habit of responding to loud-mouthed, nosy and opinionated straight people in a way that many gays evidently are not. (Judging from the surprise I elicit, I must assume so.) When someone is rude to me (i.e. speaking of “my lifestyle,” or “what I do in bed”) I simply tell them they are being rude.
They tend to look at me the way a small child might the first time he is told not to belch at the table. It never seems to occur to them that gay people deserve to be treated politely, or even that it might be advisable to try acting like grownups around us.
Why are so many people’s manners toward us so abysmal? I’m not sure I know. But my own experience has been that pointing out how rude they’re being (when, indeed, they are) generally works very well.
posted by Thomas Horsville on
“What you need to remember is that professional victim organizations like HRC constantly broadcast contradictory messages; they trumpet how many companies have policies, but then loudly shriek about how antigay firings are endemic and how thousands and thousands of gays are losing their jobs every day.”
Sorry but these assertions are not contradictory at all. The fact that the great majority of the largest American corporations ban discrimination against gay people is not incompatible with the fact that many people lose, or risk losing, their jobs because of their sexual orientation.
posted by Katie Driver on
I love this article and i fully agree. Im doing a research paper on gay rights for my 11th grade class and reading articles such as these have really helped me in developing a better paper for my teacher, my class-mates, and my whole school. Thank you.
posted by Northeast Libertarian on
“professional victim organizations like HRC constantly broadcast contradictory messages; they trumpet how many companies have policies, but then loudly shriek about how antigay firings are endemic and how thousands and thousands of gays are losing their jobs every day”
You may be unsurprised by this, but while I reject HRC’s agenda on “antidiscrimination law,” I also reject your simplistic and (as usual) dishonest characterizing of the situation.
Anti-gay firings happen all the time — just in different workplaces than those which have nondiscrimination policies at work. For every out-and-proud lawyer at a big law firm, marketeer at Kraft, or computer software designer at Apple, there’s probably a dozen blue-collar workers at companies across the street or across the country who have nasty workplaces or get terminated because they’re discovered to be gay.
Pretending otherwise is the head-in-the-sand approach which is required to. . . well. . . be a gay partisan Republican, frankly.
posted by Randy R. on
Actually, I think the HRC should in fact be encouraging all companies to adopt gay-friendly policies, and should in fact be shrieking loudly whenever a person is fired simply for being gay. What else would you have them do? Sit by and do nothing?
posted by Randy R. on
One of the reasons that companies are adopting gay friendly policies is because of demographics. As the baby boomers retire, there are fewer people in the following generation to fill all those management positions. So companies need to get on the ball — they simply can’t afford to exclude an entire group of potential employees for no sound business reason.
It’s a good thing.
posted by raj on
From the post
The column also notes that the religious rightists are attempting to instigate a backlash, via shareholder resolutions seeking to reverse corporate domestic partner benefit policies that, as they so charminly put it, “pay people who engage in homosexual sex acts.” Do these people ever think about anything other than what gay folks do in bed?
I’ve observed them for some time, and the short answer is “no.”
posted by North Dallas Thirty on
Actually, I think the HRC should in fact be encouraging all companies to adopt gay-friendly policies, and should in fact be shrieking loudly whenever a person is fired simply for being gay. What else would you have them do? Sit by and do nothing?
There’s a key difference in tense, Randy.
I don’t particularly care if they claim after a specific person is fired and when they have evidence of discrimination.
It’s when they try to claim that everyone is firing or wants to fire gays and deny them jobs that I complain.
posted by North Dallas Thirty on
Getting back to the question in Mr. Miller’s post, which was whether anti-gay people ever think about anything besides what we do in bed, I believe, NDT, that my remarks were quite to the point.
Well, the problem is this, Lori; we ARE differentiated as a group by what we do in bed, and frankly, what we do in bed is the complete opposite for what most people are wired. Blaming people for “fixating on sex” when it really is what identifies us as gay has never made much sense to me.
But I’m totally in tune with you in terms of someone making crass and impolite remarks concerning what you do in bed, although quite honestly, the matter has never come up for me. Then again, I’m in charge of enforcing organizational policies relative to workforce harassment, so maybe they figure…..
posted by Sandy on
Great article, you know back in the days when i was much younger, i remember in high school in my English class, ill never forget the teacher and his words of cruelty against gay partners. How wrong it is etc. now looking back, how uneducated was he really to teach English, go figure. I support gay marriage, gay relationships and equal opportunity. In fact Im running a gay site community my self http://www.gaycenter.eu so any suggestions would be great and once again wonderful article.