A little over two months ago, I wrote about current cases before the Supreme Court that will have a lasting impact on LGBTQ rights. Now, over 200 major corporations have signed a Supreme Court brief in favor of the LGBTQ workers. I laid out the details for the cases in the April piece, but to recap, they are:
- Bostock v. Clayton County, where a man was fired from his job as a county child welfare services coordinator after his employer found out he was gay.
- Altitude Express v. Zarda, where a skydiving instructor was fired after a customer complained that the instructor revealed that he is gay.
- R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC and Aimee Stephens, where a trans woman was fired from her job at a funeral home after she announced her gender transition.
While two of these are sexual orientation discrimination cases and one is discrimination based on gender identity, they all boil down to the question of whether workplace discrimination based on one’s sexual orientation or gender identity violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which “prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.” It is currently legal in 26 states to fire someone solely due to their sexual orientation or gender identity, according to the LGBTQ think tank Movement Advancement Project.
Arguments for these cases will be heard in October, and when they are, it will no doubt be impactful that 206 businesses last week signed an amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court. It states that excluding sexual orientation and gender identity from federal civil rights law “would undermine the nation’s business interests.” The brief was filed by many LGBTQ-rights groups and says that LGBTQ people deserve “the opportunity to earn a living, excel in their professions, and provide for their families free from fear of unequal treatment.”
The brief goes on to say, “The 206 businesses that join this brief as amici collectively employ over 7 million employees, and comprise over $5 trillion in revenue. These businesses — which range across a wide variety of industries (and some of which are even competitors) — share a common interest in equality because they know that ending discrimination in the workplace is good for business, employees, and the U.S. economy as a whole.”
Since the Supreme Court has now been stacked with conservative justices thanks to Trump, this amicus brief should no doubt have an impact on the decision because Republicans claim to respect our laissez-faire capitalism, and if major businesses are saying that LGBTQ discrimination will hurt them and the economy, then surely that should weigh on their minds when reaching a decision.
Huge corporations having so much say in societal issues because of their money and power isn’t ideal, but when they are using it for what’s right (whatever the motivation) we should commend and support them. It’s also important to hold these corporations accountable for stances they make publicly. If equality is important to you as an employee or a consumer, educate yourself about how companies treat their LGBTQ employees. The 206 corporations who signed the brief here are making a good start:
- 1010data
- 3 Percent Movement, Inc.
- 98point6 Inc.
- Accenture
- Adobe Inc.
- AdRoll Group
- Advance
- Advance Local
- Airbnb, Inc.
- Akamai Technologies, Inc.
- AllianceBernstein
- Amalgamated Bank
- Amazon.com, Inc.
- American Airlines
- American City Business Journals
- American Express
- American International Group, Inc.
- Amyris, Inc.
- ANGI Homeservices Inc.
- Apple
- Aramark
- Asana, Inc.
- ASCAP – American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers
- Ascena Retail Group, Inc.
- AT&T Services, Inc.
- Atlassian
- AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company
- Bank of America
- BASF Corporation
- Bayer US LLC
- Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc.
- Best Buy Co., Inc.
- Betterment
- BlackRock, Inc.
- Bloomberg L.P.
- BNP Paribas USA, Inc.
- BNY Mellon
- Boehringer Ingelheim USA
- Boston Scientific Corporation
- Broadcast Music, Inc.
- Brown-Forman Corporation
- Brownstein Group
- Caldwell Partners Executive Search
- Caven Enterprises
- CBS Corporation
- Celo Labs Inc.
- Chobani Global Holdings, LLC
- Chubb
- Cigna
- Cisco Systems, Inc.
- Citigroup Inc.
- Citrix
- Clockwork
- CNO Financial Group
- The Coca-Cola Company
- Comcast NBCUniversal
- Condé Nast
- Corning Incorporated
- COTA, Inc.
- Couchbase, Inc.
- Cox Enterprises, Inc.
- CSAA Insurance Group
- Cummins Inc.
- CVS Health
- Danaher Corporation
- Danone North America, PBC
- Deloitte
- Deutsche Bank
- Diageo North America, Inc.
- Domino’s
- DoorDash, Inc.
- Dow, Inc.
- Dropbox, Inc.
- DTCC
- Eastern Bank
- eBay Inc.
- Edelman
- Electric Imp, Inc.
- Ernst & Young LLP
- The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.
- Etsy, Inc.
- Evolent Health LLC
- Exelon Corporation
- Expedia Group
- Facebook, Inc.
- Fastly, Inc.
- Genentech, Inc.
- General Assembly
- General Motors
- Gilead Sciences
- Glassdoor, Inc.
- GlaxoSmithKline LLC
- The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
- Google LLC
- Grant Thornton LLP
- Greenhouse Software, Inc.
- GSBA
- Gucci
- Gusto
- The Hartford
- HERE Technologies
- Hilton
- HP Inc.
- HSBC Bank USA, N.A.
- IAC/InterActiveCorp
- IBM Corporation
- ICM Partners
- IHS Markit
- IKEA North America Services, LLC
- Indiegogo, Inc.
- Ingersoll Rand
- Ingram Micro Inc.
- Insala, LLC
- International LGBTQ+ Travel Association
- Intuit Inc.
- Invesco, Ltd.
- John Hancock
- JPMorgan Chase & Co.
- Kering Americas, Inc.
- Kickstarter, PBC
- KIND Healthy Snacks
- Levi Strauss & Co.
- Linden Research, Inc. d/b/a Linden Lab
- LinkedIn Corporation
- Lord Abbett
- Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics
- Lyft, Inc.
- Macy’s, Inc.
- Mallinckrodt plc
- Mapbox
- Marriott International, Inc.
- Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc.
- MassMutual
- Mastercard International Incorporated
- Match Group, Inc.
- MGM Resorts International
- Michelin North America, Inc.
- Microsoft Corporation
- Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams
- Moody’s Corporation
- Morgan Stanley
- Mozilla Corporation
- New York Life
- NIKE, Inc.
- Nokia of America Corporation
- Northrop Grumman Corporation
- Nuance Communications, Inc.
- Ogilvy
- PayPal, Inc.
- Peloton
- Pfizer Inc.
- Pinterest, Inc.
- Pivotal
- PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
- Principal
- The Procter & Gamble Company
- Prudential Financial, Inc.
- Publicis Groupe
- Pure Storage, Inc.
- Quantcast Corp.
- Replacements, Ltd.
- Rockwell Automation, Inc.
- Rowdies Soccer LLC d/b/a Tampa Bay Rowdies
- Royal Bank of Canada
- Runtime Collective Limited (d/b/a Brandwatch)
- S&P Global Inc.
- salesforce.com, inc.
- San Francisco Giants
- Southwest Airlines Co.
- Starbucks Corporation
- State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company
- Sun Life U.S.
- Sunrun Inc.
- T-Mobile USA, Inc.
- T. Rowe Price
- Takeda Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc.
- Tampa Bay Rays
- Tapestry, Inc.
- Tech Data Corporation
- Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.
- Thumbtack, Inc.
- TNTP, Inc.
- TPG Global
- Trillium Asset Management LLC
- Turnitin
- Turo Inc.
- Uber Technologies, Inc.
- Ultimate Software
- Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc.
- Under Armour, Inc.
- Univision Communications Inc.
- User Testing, Inc.
- Viacom Inc.
- ViiV Healthcare Company
- Vimeo, Inc.
- The Walt Disney Company
- WarnerMedia LLC
- Wells Fargo & Company
- Williams-Sonoma, Inc.
- Workday, Inc.
- Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc.
- Xerox Corporation
- Xylem Inc.
- YSC Consulting
- Zillow Group, Inc.
- Zume, Inc.
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