WASHINGTON — Nothing affects public policy like pressure from America’s corporations, and that muscle was vividly on display this week in Indiana and Arkansas.
The states’ governors, facing the threat of dollars, jobs and tourists fleeing their states, quickly and publicly softened their positions on religious freedom acts. We don’t intend to discriminate, they insisted, as Wal-Mart, American Airlines, Marriott, NASCAR, the NCAA and other corporate powerhouses weighed in.
Business clearly influenced the debate in states considering the law, such as North Carolina.
“They helped the opposition reframe the argument from rights, liberty and religious expression to an economic argument,” said Janine Parry, the director of the University of Arkansas poll.
On Wednesday, a day after Arkansas’ Legislature sent Gov. Asa Hutchinson the religious freedom legislation he said he intended to sign, Hutchinson backed off, announcing he wants changes. On Tuesday, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence told a news conference much the same about the law he had approved days earlier, and changes are in the works.
“It sure looks like corporate pressure has gotten Gov. Pence’s attention in Indiana in a way that, say, objections from the Human Rights Campaign would not, and Wal-Mart’s voice is loud and influential in Arkansas,” said Jonathan Rauch, a senior fellow of governance studies at Washington’s Brookings Institution.
The governors’ suddenly shifting stances reflect the clout of American business and the gay consumer — power that arguably is even stronger than political pressure.
The buying power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is about $830 billion, according to a 2013 analysis by Witeck Communications, a Washington-based firm that assists major corporations in marketing to the LGBT community.
“I think the leadership of the private sector in the past week has had a profound impact,” said Jason Rahlan, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign. “Folks understand that equality is good business and discrimination isn’t.”
When Pence signed the Indiana law a week ago, about the only political objections came from Democrats. Potential presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, tweeted her opposition. Most potential Republican presidential candidates, though, quickly lined up behind the measure.
But business interests matter, particularly to Republican governors.
“It plays right to the Republicans’ soft spot,” said Daniel Mitchell, an economist and senior fellow at Washington’s Cato Institute, a libertarian research group.
The Indiana law protects companies and individuals from government actions that would substantially burden religious practices. The federal government and 19 other states, among them Texas, have religious freedom laws. Indiana’s and Arkansas’ measures are seen as different, allowing businesses to discriminate.
As news about the laws spread, financial interests began to weigh in.
“Pure idiocy from a business perspective,” said Arne Sorenson, Marriott’s president and CEO.
Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, tweeted, “Apple is open for everyone. We are deeply disappointed in Indiana’s new law.”
Technology industry leaders issued a joint statement saying, “LGBT people deserve to be protected from unjust discrimination.”
Fort Worth-based American Airlines Inc. and Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co. said they had made known their unhappiness with the legislation. American co-signed the Human Rights Campaign statement Tuesday opposing such laws.
“We believe no individual should be refused service or employment because of gender identity or sexual orientation,” American spokesman Matt Miller said. “Laws that allow such discrimination create an unfavorable social and business climate, are fundamentally unfair, and promote intolerance and division.”
Southwest said it “has communicated to Indiana Gov. Pence its disappointment with the recently enacted Religious Freedom Reformation Act and the possible negative impact on Southwest’s employees and customers.”
“Southwest’s position on this law is consistent with its recent signing of a public pledge in the state of Texas supporting the idea that LGBT inclusion is good for business and allows Texas to compete for top talent. While we cannot always control state legislative action, Southwest will voice its opposition when such laws promote exclusion.”
McClatchy
Washington Bureau,
staff writer Terry Maxon
