U.S. companies emerged last week as among the most outspoken — and effective — adversaries of state legislation they contended would sanction discrimination against gays.
Pressure from Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Apple Inc., General Electric Co. and others persuaded Indiana lawmakers to amend a religious-freedom law and Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson to demand changes to a bill legislators sent him. Opposition from companies also may be slowing the momentum in other states that are considering what critics decry as anti-gay measures disguised as protecting religious liberty.
For companies, defending gay rights is good for business. "Large multistate employees have to hire and attract and retain people from all walks of life," said Bob Witeck, a consultant whose clients include Wal-Mart and Citigroup Inc.
Employers don't want rules in some states that would make it hard to relocate talented people. And executives don't want their states to be on the wrong side of history — or subjected to boycotts and negative publicity — as public opinion is increasingly shifting in favor of gay rights.
"It's just bad for their business," said Gary Gates, research director at the UCLA School of Law's Williams Institute. A patchwork of state policies means "their policies must be potentially different depending on the location. That all costs money."
That's one reason, he said, that companies have been "so far ahead of the public and government" on gay-rights issues.
Before polls showed Americans supported the idea, companies such as the Walt Disney Co. gave employees' same-sex partners the health, pension and other benefits that their spouses had.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Microsoft Corp. were among the hundreds of companies that signed a brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act; the court overturned the federal law in 2013.
