Big Companies Speak Up for LGBTQ Rights

"Leeds Pride" by Bryan Ledgard licensed under CC BY 2.0
“Leeds Pride” by Bryan Ledgard licensed under CC BY 2.0

Source: The New Yorker

Large corporate businesses like Walmart and Disney are taking social change into their own hands. In the last year, executives at hundreds of companies have signed petitions, asking of state legislators to repeal bills that inherently violate LGBTQ people’s rights. Over 100 new laws in states including North Carolina, Georgia and Mississippi that discriminate against members of the LGBTQ community have passed on the basis of protecting religious freedom.

Recently, the executives of over 80 different large companies signed a letter urging the governor of North Carolina to repeal the state’s new law that would require people to use bathrooms according to their ‘biological sex at birth.’ The new law was vetoed last month.

Among these activists for social change are companies like Apple, Walmart, Marriott, Microsoft, Disney and Pfizer, to name a few. While corporate leverage over state legislators has always been criticized, this movement is uniquely and inherently necessary and in this case the booming voice of these companies is protecting the rights of thousands in an important time period; in fact, as The New Yorker notes, this movement is reminiscent of the time period when businesses on a smaller scale drove efforts to desegregate public spaces during the civil-rights era.

Read full story at: The New Yorker

Justice & Poverty, News
Justice & Poverty, News