LGBT Inc.: Corporations Stand Up to State Governments in Defense of Civil Rights
Surrounded by security, activists against North Carolina’s “bathroom bill” protest outside the office of House Speaker Tim Moore at the State Legislative Building in Raleigh, N.C., on April 25.
Photographer: Robert Willett/TNS via Getty Images
In early March, Salesforce.com dispatched its general counsel, Amy Weaver, and its top government affairs executive, Jim Green, to Georgia to lobby against a bill that would have given businesses the right to deny service to lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender customers on religious grounds. Like other so-called religious freedom bills, the Georgia legislation was designed to offer a legal shield for social conservatives. Georgia Governor Nathan Deal wound up vetoing the bill, but Green knew the win in Atlanta would be temporary.
Almost 200 bills have been proposed this year in more than 30 states that would limit or prohibit protection against discrimination for LGBT individuals, according to the advocacy group Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Five have passed into law; three have been vetoed; and 144 have died or been withdrawn. “We were like, ‘Whoa,’ and started to realize the scope of the issue,” Green says.