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:

  1. 1010data
  2. 3 Percent Movement, Inc.
  3. 98point6 Inc.
  4. Accenture
  5. Adobe Inc.
  6. AdRoll Group
  7. Advance
  8. Advance Local
  9. Airbnb, Inc.
  10. Akamai Technologies, Inc.
  11. AllianceBernstein
  12. Amalgamated Bank
  13. Amazon.com, Inc.
  14. American Airlines
  15. American City Business Journals
  16. American Express
  17. American International Group, Inc.
  18. Amyris, Inc.
  19. ANGI Homeservices Inc.
  20. Apple
  21. Aramark
  22. Asana, Inc.
  23. ASCAP – American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers
  24. Ascena Retail Group, Inc.
  25. AT&T Services, Inc.
  26. Atlassian
  27. AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company
  28. Bank of America
  29. BASF Corporation
  30. Bayer US LLC
  31. Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc.
  32. Best Buy Co., Inc.
  33. Betterment
  34. BlackRock, Inc.
  35. Bloomberg L.P.
  36. BNP Paribas USA, Inc.
  37. BNY Mellon
  38. Boehringer Ingelheim USA
  39. Boston Scientific Corporation
  40. Broadcast Music, Inc.
  41. Brown-Forman Corporation
  42. Brownstein Group
  43. Caldwell Partners Executive Search
  44. Caven Enterprises
  45. CBS Corporation
  46. Celo Labs Inc.
  47. Chobani Global Holdings, LLC
  48. Chubb
  49. Cigna
  50. Cisco Systems, Inc.
  51. Citigroup Inc.
  52. Citrix
  53. Clockwork
  54. CNO Financial Group
  55. The Coca-Cola Company
  56. Comcast NBCUniversal
  57. Condé Nast
  58. Corning Incorporated
  59. COTA, Inc.
  60. Couchbase, Inc.
  61. Cox Enterprises, Inc.
  62. CSAA Insurance Group
  63. Cummins Inc.
  64. CVS Health
  65. Danaher Corporation
  66. Danone North America, PBC
  67. Deloitte
  68. Deutsche Bank
  69. Diageo North America, Inc.
  70. Domino’s
  71. DoorDash, Inc.
  72. Dow, Inc.
  73. Dropbox, Inc.
  74. DTCC
  75. Eastern Bank
  76. eBay Inc.
  77. Edelman
  78. Electric Imp, Inc.
  79. Ernst & Young LLP
  80. The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.
  81. Etsy, Inc.
  82. Evolent Health LLC
  83. Exelon Corporation
  84. Expedia Group
  85. Facebook, Inc.
  86. Fastly, Inc.
  87. Genentech, Inc.
  88. General Assembly
  89. General Motors
  90. Gilead Sciences
  91. Glassdoor, Inc.
  92. GlaxoSmithKline LLC
  93. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
  94. Google LLC
  95. Grant Thornton LLP
  96. Greenhouse Software, Inc.
  97. GSBA
  98. Gucci
  99. Gusto
  100. The Hartford
  101. HERE Technologies
  102. Hilton
  103. HP Inc.
  104. HSBC Bank USA, N.A.
  105. IAC/InterActiveCorp
  106. IBM Corporation
  107. ICM Partners
  108. IHS Markit
  109. IKEA North America Services, LLC
  110. Indiegogo, Inc.
  111. Ingersoll Rand
  112. Ingram Micro Inc.
  113. Insala, LLC
  114. International LGBTQ+ Travel Association
  115. Intuit Inc.
  116. Invesco, Ltd.
  117. John Hancock
  118. JPMorgan Chase & Co.
  119. Kering Americas, Inc.
  120. Kickstarter, PBC
  121. KIND Healthy Snacks
  122. Levi Strauss & Co.
  123. Linden Research, Inc. d/b/a Linden Lab
  124. LinkedIn Corporation
  125. Lord Abbett
  126. Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics
  127. Lyft, Inc.
  128. Macy’s, Inc.
  129. Mallinckrodt plc
  130. Mapbox
  131. Marriott International, Inc.
  132. Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc.
  133. MassMutual
  134. Mastercard International Incorporated
  135. Match Group, Inc.
  136. MGM Resorts International
  137. Michelin North America, Inc.
  138. Microsoft Corporation
  139. Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams
  140. Moody’s Corporation
  141. Morgan Stanley
  142. Mozilla Corporation
  143. New York Life
  144. NIKE, Inc.
  145. Nokia of America Corporation
  146. Northrop Grumman Corporation
  147. Nuance Communications, Inc.
  148. Ogilvy
  149. PayPal, Inc.
  150. Peloton
  151. Pfizer Inc.
  152. Pinterest, Inc.
  153. Pivotal
  154. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
  155. Principal
  156. The Procter & Gamble Company
  157. Prudential Financial, Inc.
  158. Publicis Groupe
  159. Pure Storage, Inc.
  160. Quantcast Corp.
  161. Replacements, Ltd.
  162. Rockwell Automation, Inc.
  163. Rowdies Soccer LLC d/b/a Tampa Bay Rowdies
  164. Royal Bank of Canada
  165. Runtime Collective Limited (d/b/a Brandwatch)
  166. S&P Global Inc.
  167. salesforce.com, inc.
  168. San Francisco Giants
  169. Southwest Airlines Co.
  170. Starbucks Corporation
  171. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company
  172. Sun Life U.S.
  173. Sunrun Inc.
  174. T-Mobile USA, Inc.
  175. T. Rowe Price
  176. Takeda Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc.
  177. Tampa Bay Rays
  178. Tapestry, Inc.
  179. Tech Data Corporation
  180. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.
  181. Thumbtack, Inc.
  182. TNTP, Inc.
  183. TPG Global
  184. Trillium Asset Management LLC
  185. Turnitin
  186. Turo Inc.
  187. Uber Technologies, Inc.
  188. Ultimate Software
  189. Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc.
  190. Under Armour, Inc.
  191. Univision Communications Inc.
  192. User Testing, Inc.
  193. Viacom Inc.
  194. ViiV Healthcare Company
  195. Vimeo, Inc.
  196. The Walt Disney Company
  197. WarnerMedia LLC
  198. Wells Fargo & Company
  199. Williams-Sonoma, Inc.
  200. Workday, Inc.
  201. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc.
  202. Xerox Corporation
  203. Xylem Inc.
  204. YSC Consulting
  205. Zillow Group, Inc.
  206. Zume, Inc.

 

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