Jonathan Lovitz, National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce Vice President of External Affairs, would say, “the best thing you can do for the bottom line is inclusion.” With this view in mind, it's no wonder that many corporations have been against the recent slew of discriminatory laws introduced in state legislatures in the last year alone. Big businesses like Netflix and Coca-Cola were a great help in Georgia when they pressured Governor Nathan Deal to veto a bill discriminating against lgbtqia+ consumers. They threatened to leave Georgia, taking countless jobs with them. It was this boycott that brought Governor Nathan Deal to his decision. This law, that was alleged to protect the faith-based community in Georgia would have given Georgia businesses the right to turn away homosexual customers. The South Dakota legislature attempted to pass a similarly discriminatory law.Many businesses and organizations, including the Child Welfare League of America, united to protest it. Governor Dennis Daugaard struck down this bill which infringed on the protections that transgender people, and those of various gender identities, have been afforded. This law would dictate public school bathroom usage by chromosomes and anatomy, thereby barring transgender students from using the restroom matching their identity. Do you think the aid of corporations was necessary for these outcomes? How do you think that these types of inflammatory laws get passed through the legislature so easily a veto is required? How would any of these measures proposed by these state legislatures actually be beneficial to anybody except bigots?
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Personally, I think that this bill, House 757, is horrendous and the fact that the same one was actually passed in North Carolina is shocking. In North Carolina they passed House Bill 2 which overrides all local ordinances in the state concerning wages, employment, and public accommodations which thus bars local businesses from creating their own rules prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It also directs that bathrooms and changing facilities are designated for use by people based solely on their biological sex listed on birth certificate. I personally do not think that bills like this or House 757 would benefit anyone but bigots. People who supported these bills argue that they are necessary to protect the safety of women and children because men could enter into the female bathrooms under the pretense of being transgender which would be a major breach of privacy. However, I along with many others would argue that these bills are straight up discriminatory and there is no evidence to prove that women have been attacked or that their privacy had been breached in some way due to people having the ability to use the public facilities that they associate with.
Despite the governor of Georgia saying that the corporations had nothing to do with his decision, I think they played a major role. Right now, North Carolina stands to lose $4.5 billion in federal funding and many businesses have denounced the law and are reconsidering their business in the state. This is evidence of the economic determinants of a bill like this, however the true negatively of this bill would come at the social level as discrimination would be allowed to prevail.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/28/us/georgia-north-carolina-lgbt-bills/
http://abcnews.go.com/US/north-carolinas-controversial-anti-lgbt-bill-explained/story?id=37898153
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