Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. Benjamin Franklin

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Corporate America’s Evolution on L.G.B.T. Rights

 By Richard Socarides

THE NEW YORKER - April 27, 2015

Twenty years ago, when I was working as a White House special assistant in Bill Clinton’s public-liaison office, one of my jobs was to rally support for the President’s initiatives. We often focussed on enlisting business leaders, among whom the President had many supporters, thanks in part to the country’s robust economy. When I tried, however, to get C.E.O.s to endorse Clinton’s gay-rights initiatives, which included expanding protections against employment discrimination and hate crimes, as well as appointing gays to positions requiring confirmation by the U.S. Senate, I got very few takers. Just getting executives to a meeting about gay rights was a challenge, even though they generally liked being invited to the White House. I remember one event, in particular, for which the best we could do was get a producer, who was gay himself, to represent the business community. The entertainment industry was, at the time, the only business that wanted anything to do with gay rights.

I was thinking about that era as I read the amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court in support of marriage equality by three hundred and seventy-nine major businesses and business organizations, in connection with four landmark cases that will be argued before the Court on Tuesday. The brief has been signed by a broad cross-section of American businesses from every region of the country, reflecting the commitment to the issue that has evolved, at first slowly and then forcefully, over the past decade. The brief argues that laws restricting marriage to heterosexual couples “impose a significant burden on us and harm our ability to attract and retain the best employees.”

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