U.S. businesses' stake in ruling
When the Supreme Court this week hears arguments over whether gay and lesbian couples can marry in all 50 states, one audience will be paying especially close attention: American businesses, which say they spend more than $1 billion a year navigating the nation's complex patchwork of same-sex marriage laws.
In a friend-of-the-court brief filed last month, 379 of the country's best-known businesses — from Apple and Amazon.com to General Electric and Walt Disney — urged justices to strike down same-sex marriage bans and provide every member of their workforce "equal dignity."
The brief marked corporate America's latest risky reversal from its traditional playbook of dodging thorny debates, and follows a series of high-profile business protests of "religious freedom" laws in Indiana and Arkansas.
But companies say they increasingly see marriage equality not just as one of this generation's defining social-rights battles, but as a critical business issue that affects how they recruit, manage and retain employees.
"Five years ago, you wouldn't have seen nearly as many companies feeling comfortable — and not just comfortable, but feeling it's imperative — to speak up about this issue," said Todd Sears, a former investment banker who founded Out Leadership, a business advisory company.
About 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies now offer protection against discrimination for lesbian, gay and bisexual employees, up from about 60 percent in 2002, Human Rights Campaign data show. About 66 percent of those companies also extend medical benefits to same-sex spouses and partners.
At an Out Leadership summit last year, Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein joked that he was fine with competitors who turned away gay and lesbian employees, because it gave him a chance to recruit new talent.
"I don't see the downside, he said, "of taking a position that's so clearly on the right side of progress and history."
Washington Post