BUSINESS
Why Do Pro-LGBTQ Companies Fund Homophobes?
Top HRC-rated corporations pumping millions into bigots’ war chests
BY MATT TRACY
Many companies waving Rainbow
Flags at Pride Marches around
the United States are also funding
the political campaigns of
some of the most homophobic and transphobic
politicians in America.
Dozens of corporations with top ratings
on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate
Equality Index donated a combined $5.8 million
to anti-LGBTQ politicians in Congress
between 2010 and 2018, according to a report
by Zero for Zeros, which is a new coalition of
LGBTQ advocates and allies dedicated to convincing
corporations to move away from funding
homophobes.
AT&T, Deloitte, Price Waterhouse Coopers,
UPS, and Chevron top the list of 49 companies
that nabbed 100 percent ratings from HRC
while also steering funds toward members of
Congress who have received a “zero” rating
from HRC, meaning they’ve have racked up the
worst possible record on LGBTQ issues.
HRC bases its Corporate Equality Index criteria
on a range of factors including nondiscrimination
policies, spousal benefi ts, health
coverage, and efforts to reach out to the broader
LGBTQ community. That index does not take
into consideration the companies’ political giving,
though HRC separately grades lawmakers
on their LGBTQ record via its Congressional
Scorecard.
“During Pride Month, corporate America
was out, loud, and proud in support of its
LGBT employees and customers, but on the
political side, they are donating to some of the
most outspoken opponents of LGBT equality
in Congress,” Lane Hudson, Zero for Zeros’
out gay campaign manager, said in a written
statement. “As LGBT rights are under perpetual
attack from Trump and Republicans, we
need our allies to be with us 100 percent of
the time.”
Zero for Zeros, an effort that includes out
LGBTQ folks such as SiriusXM radio show
host Danielle Moodie-Mills, Virginia State
Senator Adam Ebbin, and New York-based actor
Omar Sharif, Jr., kicked off its campaign
by reaching out to CEOs of the companies on
their list and running digital ads to ask folks
to join the campaign. In a fi rst wave, the campaign
is currently shining a spotlight on 12 of
the companies on its list: Microsoft, Facebook,
AT&T, T-Mobile, Google, Intel, Amazon, Visa,
Mastercard, Cisco Systems, Dell Inc., Oracle,
SAP America, and American Airlines.
AT&T, the worst offender of them all, has
pumped $460,000 to dozens of bigoted politicians
MIKE MOZART/ FLICKR
The rainbow hovering over AT&T fades with revelelations that the
corporate giant has shelled out hundreds of thousands of dollars to
anti-LGBTQ politicians.
across both houses of Congress, while
Deloitte gave $310,000 in total. Other companies
on the list include Ernst & Young, Microsoft,
Northrop Grumman, Pfi zer, and Google,
among dozens of others.
AT&T has spread its cash around to roughly
twice as many members of the Senate — 19
— as the nine House members they’ve funded.
But they’ve given more repeated donations to
those in the House, including 12 donations
between 2010 and 2018 to racist homophobe
Steve King of Iowa , who once said he does not
“expect to meet” LGBTQ people in Heaven and
insists that “what was a sin 2,000 years ago is
a sin today.” But they’re not alone in bankrolling
the bigot: Bayer AG, Cargill, Cigna Corp,
Deloitte, Google, Intel, Microsoft, T-Mobile,
UPS, and American Airlines have also enriched
King’s campaigns.
According to OpenSecrets.og, AT&T has donated
far more to Republican candidates than
Democrats in every single election cycle dating
back to 1996. The telecommunications giant
donated $8.2 million in total during the 2018
midterms and $11.7 million in the 2016 election
and gave roughly twice as much money to
Republicans ($7.6 million) in 2016 than Democrats
($3.9 million)
AT&T has also donated to some of the most
prominent anti-LGBTQ senators such as Ted
Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, and
Marco Rubio of Florida. And like King, Cruz
and others have solicited payments from many
of the other 49 companies that purport to be
friends of the LGBTQ community. Ecolab, Dow
Chemical, Ernst & Young, Exelon Corp., Facebook,
General Motors, Google, Intel, Johnson
& Johnson, JP Morgan Chase, KPMG, Microsoft,
Pfi zer, and others have helped fund Cruz’s
anti-LGBTQ campaigns.
Deloitte, which provides professional services
including accounting, auditing, and consulting,
reached the second spot on Zero for
Zeros’ list by giving fi nancial backing to fringe
folks like Senator Mike Lee of Utah, who most
recently blocked the re-nomination of out lesbian
Chai Feldblum as commissioner at the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The corporation pumped cash into his campaigns
six times between 2010 and 2016.
Another lawmaker supported by Deloitte and
many others is Representative Louie Gohmert
of Texas, who once justifi ed his opposition to
LGBTQ relationships when he said same-sex
couples would not be able to “sustain life” if
they are placed on an island. He also spewed
transphobia during an April 2 hearing on the
LGBTQ nondiscrimination bill known as the
Equality Act when he said that the legislation
would force the Olympics to change its rules on
testosterone.
Deloitte, like AT&T, has given more money
to Republicans in every election cycle and has
followed that pattern dating back to 1992. Deloitte
has already delivered 54 percent of their
funds for the 2020 elections to Republicans
compared to the 45 percent they’ve given to
Democrats. They spent $4.6 million and $4.7
million in total on candidates in 2016 and
2018, respectively, and they were especially
generous to Republicans in 2016 when they
gave $2.6 million to Republicans compared to
$1.9 to Democrats.
Mastercard, also on the list, was recently the
subject of some amount of ridicule when the
City of New York allowed the corporate giant
to sponsor the renaming of a street corner in
Manhattan during Pride Month to refl ect different
sexual orientations and gender identities.
That renaming served as part of Mastercard’s
effort to market a new initiative allowing
people use their own gender identity on their
credit, debit, and prepaid cards.
In a written statement HRC conceded that
“general PAC giving is outside of the scope” of
its Corporate Equality Index, but insisted that
it does “monitor employers’ contributions to
anti-LGBTQ ballot measures and organizations
whose primary mission includes anti-
LGBTQ advocacy, as well as provide credit for
employers who take public stances for LGBTQ
equality in the law.”
HRC also noted that beyond the Corporate
Equality Index, folks are able to refer to its Congressional
Scorecard to gain an understanding
of where candidates stand on LGBTQ issues.
“The Corporate Equality Index and the Congressional
Scorecard are critical tools for advancing
LGBTQ equality — they are not the
only tools,” the HRC statement added.
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