Near the front of Time magazine in the April 11 edition is a “good news” story by Katy Steinmetz titled “Why more companies are coming out of the political closet.” A caption to a faux graph with a rainbow headed to the top noted “Since mobilizing against an Indiana law last year, businesses have increasingly defended LGBT rights.” This doesn't include the "donations at the office" through media tilt.
One of the most notable pro-gay corporations is none other than Time Warner – parent company to Time magazine until 2014 -- but Time magazine didn’t mention that. (Call it partly closeted). Steinmetz began:
Earlier this year, as LGBT advocacy groups geared up to fight a religious-freedom bill in Georgia, some of the nation’s most powerful executives were rallying behind the scenes. By late March, after the measure passed Georgia’s legislature, Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, Disney and nearly 500 other companies big and small–as well as major sports organizations like the NFL and NCAA – were warning of consequences should Republican Governor Nathan Deal sign the measure. “There was such a swelling of voices and breadth of industry,” says Atlanta city-council member Alex Wan. “It became impossible to ignore.”
When Deal did veto the bill on March 28, he criticized companies that “resorted to threats” like relocating jobs or canceling conferences, film shoots and sporting events. But he acknowledged that “providing a business-friendly climate” was part of his calculus. And how could it not be? After Indiana passed a similar law last year–which arguably provided legal cover for individuals or businesses with moral objections to deny service to LGBT people–Indianapolis lost an estimated $60 million in economic activity and was pilloried by businesses from Apple to NASCAR.
All kinds of media outlets put Time Warner in the headlines on March 24. NPR offered “Time Warner, Others Join Disney In Opposing Georgia's 'Religious Liberty' Bill.” Fortune magazine – like Time, a magazine now owned by Time Inc. – explicitly reported “Time Warner Joins Hollywood Opposition to Georgia's Anti-Gay Bill.”
Fortune linked to Time Warner’s statement, which lobbied strongly:
At Time Warner, diversity in all its forms is core to our value system and to the success of our business. We strongly oppose the discriminatory language and intent of Georgia's pending religious liberty bill, which clearly violates the values and principles of inclusion and the ability of all people to live and work free from discrimination.
All of our divisions – HBO, Warner Bros. and Turner – have business interests in Georgia, but none more than Turner, an active participant in the Georgia Prospers campaign, a coalition of business leaders committed to a Georgia that welcomes all people. Georgia bill HB 757 is in contradiction to this campaign, to the values we hold dear, and to the type of workplace we guarantee to our employees. We urge Governor Deal to exercise his veto.
Fortune added:
Georgia has become a hotbed of Hollywood activity due to particularly generous tax credits the state extends to film studios. Last year, HBO chose Atlanta as the shooting location for the film Confirmation, a TV movie about Anita Hill and the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearings that airs next month.
Corporations who lobby for tax breaks or free-market ideas are bad, but corporations agitating for “LGBT rights” are apparently terrific exercises in “corporate conscience,” according to Steinmetz:
With any public stance, businesses risk alienating workers, investors and consumers. But at least on the matter of LGBT rights, the likelihood of a backlash is shrinking. Some 60% of Americans support same-sex marriage, double the percentage that did in the ’90s. Employers now vie for top scores on the Human Rights Campaign’s corporate equality rankings, recognizing their value as a recruiting tool. In North Carolina, where Republican Governor Pat McCrory signed a bill invalidating local nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people less than a week before Deal rejected Georgia’s measure, Charlotte-based Bank of America has been vocal in its opposition. And in South Dakota, Citibank and Wells Fargo were among the firms that pressured the Republican governor to veto another bill seen as anti-LGBT in early March.
Even if you agree with these stances, the growing displays of corporate conscience raise questions about the role of businesses in shaping public policy. But barring a groundswell of weary consumers who decide they just want the product without the homily, thank you very much, don’t expect that to change anytime soon. C-suiters may not be trained for the stump, but some of them are starting to sound an awful lot like politicians. “This is about being an American,” Benioff says of his public stand. “This is what America is about today.”
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