When Capitalism is the Friend of Gay Rights


Today Apple announced its support of gay rights and its intention to push back against conservative states. Apple and Face Book are big employers in communities across the country and resistance to right wing and discriminatory laws may have an impact. 

A great example is Mike Pence. He champions himself as a courageous Christian who goes into battle regardless of the arrows coming at him. In 2015 we learned he will back down quickly when faced with threats from corporations. He was governor of Indiana and had endorsed a pending "religious freedom" bill that would have allowed religious crackpots to not serve sinners. When corporations leaned on him he demanded the Republican legislature fix this.

One of the micro examples of corporations promoting freedom was the Montgomery, AL, back-of-the-bus incident. We all know the story of Rosa Parks who refused to move to the back of the bus. What is not well known is the buses were not "city buses" but owned and run by a private firm. They resisted the back of the bus for black people ordinance. They objected because it forced their drivers to get behind schedule asking people to move. Their objection was for practical profit reasons which sometimes are the friend of equal rights. 

One can surmise a lot of corporation resistance to discrimination has to do with profits as well. Firms like Apple and Face Book hire a lot of gay people. Plus, gay people and their supporters are customers. Some may recall how outspoken the owner of Chick-fil-A used to be against gay marriage and such. His staff confronted him with the reality the company could not grow into a national force with a bigoted owner at the helm. He has been quite quiet ever since. 

While I think corporations should pay higher taxes to compensate for the government services they use and pay their executives too much,  one has to admit they have a lot of political clout that helps them keep their taxes low. This political clout from loyal customers, employees and stock holders often plays a positive role in equal rights for all.   

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