Let’s return to those halcyon days of yesteryear – 2016 – when corporations around the country were threatening to pull up stakes from states that were passing anti-LGBTQ legislation. Corporate Boycotts Become Key Weapon in Gay Rights Fight:
The battle for LGBTQ rights has demonstrated the power of boycotts — or the threat of them — in trying to turn back policies seen as discriminatory. But this development includes a twist: in a growing number of cases, the moral stands are being taken by corporations.
Many of America’s most powerful companies — including Apple, IBM, Wal-Mart, the NFL, the NBA and American Airlines — have voiced opposition to states’ recent attempts to limit anti-discrimination protections for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people. With the response comes the implied warning that they could take their resources, jobs and money-making events and go elsewhere.
[C]ompanies are learning that in order to succeed, they need to reflect changing cultural values — not only to remain relevant to consumers but also to recruit good workers, Small said. With the Supreme Court upholding gay marriage and the federal government backing anti-discrimination protections for LGBT Americans, “it’s in their interest to be on the right side of history.”
The corporate activism seems to get results. But it’s difficult to say for sure.
Six years later, we know for sure. The MAGA/QAnon radicalization of the GQP has led to a new wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation in Republican states across the country. And where is the “righteous” corporate pushback now that we saw in 2016? Nowhere to be found, apparently.
(The same thing happened in 2021 when Major League Baseball moved the All-Star game from Atlanta, and corporations threatened to boycott Republican states enacting Jim Crow 2.0 voter suppression laws across the country from Georgia to Arizona. Corporations also suspended their campaign contributions to Republican office holders and GQP organizations that had supported the January 6, 2021 violent insurrection in the nation’s Capitol. That pledge didn’t even make it until the end of the year.)
Lesson learned: “Watch what they do, not what they say.” There are very few good corporate citizens. Profits before morality.
Last week, Governor Doug Ducey signed four bills from the MAGA/QAnon radicalized GQP legislature: (1) S.B. 1164, a facially unconstitutional anti-abortion “trigger bill” which would impose a 15-week abortion ban, if the the U.S. Supreme Court modifies Roe v. Wade and endorses Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban (an overtuning of Roe v. Wade would lead to the criminalization of all abortions in Arizona); (2) S.B.1165, which prohibits trans youth athletes from participating on sports teams that align with their gender identity; (3) S.B. 1138, which prohibits gender reassignment surgery before the age of 18; and (4) H.B.2492, a facially unconstitutional GQP voter suppression bill which attempts to reimpose a proof of citizenship requirement when registering to vote thatthe U.S. Supreme Court struck down in 2013, Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc., and puts election workers at risk of felony offenses if they fail to comply.
The first three of these bills comes from the Christian Taliban at the Center for Arizona Policy, led by Cathi Herrod. The GQP Jim Crow 2.0 voter suppression bill comes from the [Confederate] Heritage Foundation.
At least two federal lawsuits have already been filed challenging voter registration requirements signed into law Wednesday by Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey. 2 lawsuits filed against new GOP-backed voter registration rules.
And the Department of Justice has already warned Arizona it wil sue over the anti-transgender discrimination bills. DOJ warns Arizona it will sue to void new anti-trans laws:
Arizona could find itself the target of lawsuits from the U.S. Department of Justice over recent anti-trans legislation.
The department’s Civil Rights Division sent a letter to all state attorneys general warning of legal action against laws that potentially violate constitutional and federal non-discrimination protections.
“All persons should be free to access the services, programs, and activities supported by federal financial assistance without fear that they might face unlawful discrimination,” wrote Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general.
How many kids will be harmed because of this legislation? How many kids will suffer until a future, more tolerant Legislature rights these wrongs?
I am deeply disappointed in this decision, and my heart breaks for the families and kids who will suffer because of these laws.
— Kathy Hoffman (@Supt_Hoffman) March 30, 2022
Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law controversial bills targeting trans Arizonans. Senate Bill 1138 prohibits doctors from providing minors with gender reassignment surgeries, including procedures to masculinize or feminize a patient’s chest, and Senate Bill 1165 bars trans students from joining girls sports teams in competitive school athletic programs all the way up to university.
Our partisan hack Attorney General Mark Brnovich aka “Nunchucks” (or is it numbnuts?) threatened to once again abuse the power of his office for a campaing stunt to appeal to the MAGA/QAnon crazy base.
▶️US Department of Justice to AGs: State laws banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth might be unconstitutional.
▶️Arizona AG & U.S. Senate candidate Mark Brnovich: https://t.co/OjEn70ejsl— Brahm Resnik (@brahmresnik) April 1, 2022
LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, whose Arizona chapter held a press conference at the state Capitol yesterday denouncing Ducey’s actions, welcomed the letter.
“The Department of Justice is sending a clear message to states across the country: elected officials have a duty to protect trans kids and their rights,” it wrote in a tweet.
Bridget Sharpe, the campaign’s director in Arizona, previously indicated the organization was open to joining legal challenges against the bills.
Opponents have criticized the bills as discriminatory because they single out and cause harm for one group of people, and the department’s analysis supports that.
The letter states that legislation restricting transgender access to medical care violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because it necessarily discriminates against transgender people based on sex, which the clause prohibits. The Due Process Clause is also infringed on since it guarantees the parental right to follow medical advice for their children’s health.
Proponents of the sports ban in Arizona have cited Title IX as justification for keeping trans girls out of teams designated for biological girls, but that argument is flawed, according to the DOJ.
Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in education programs that receive federal funding — like interscholastic sports in public schools. Blocking students from participating because they are transgender may constitute discrimination based on sex, Clarke wrote.
The Arizona bills don’t go into effect until 90 days after the legislative session ends, but legal action could be taken before then. Another controversial bill, approved by Ducey on the same day as the anti trans bills, which requires proof of citizenship to register to vote was challenged in court the next day.
And where are the “righteous” corporations opposing these blatantly unconstitutional and discriminatory bills enacted by our lawless GQP legislature and governor? At campaign fundraisers for the MAGA/QAnon radical GQP extremists who enacted these bills. Corporate citizens are morally bankrupt. They are moral nihilists.
E.J. Montini writes, Will NFL move 2023 Super Bowl from Arizona over attacks on transgender youth and others?
A few months ago, a group of religious leaders created a petition asking the National Football League to move the 2023 Super Bowl out of Arizona if lawmakers here went ahead with some of the voter suppression bills introduced by Republicans.
The petition reads in part: “As the NFL has recently considered relocating Super Bowl LVII because of COVID-19, we, as faith leaders, ask you to consider relocating Super Bowl LVII from Arizona because of another disease: the disease of racism, and particularly, its symptom of voter suppression.”
That was only a few months ago and the sentiment expressed by the clerics seems, in retrospect, to be fairly mild.
Even … quaint.
Because not only has the GOP-controlled Legislature leveled attacks on voter rights, but they’ve also declared war on women, particularly rape and incest victims, as well vulnerable transgender children and their families.
Will NFL go with principle or profit?
And the legislative session is ongoing.
They’re not done.
In 1990, when Arizona voters failed to approve a proposition to create a Martin Luther King Jr. Day the NFL moved the 1993 Super Bowl, scheduled for Arizona, to Pasadena, Calif.
The state rebounded. Voters eventually passed the holiday and the NFL granted Arizona the 1996 Super Bowl.
There is an argument – and it is a valid one – that moving the Super Bowl would be a big economic hit for the Valley and could impact a lot of people who would not be the NFL’s intended target.
True.
But if the league is what it says it is, if it believes in upholding standards of human dignity, in protecting the vulnerable and preserving individual rights, then how could the NFL not consider moving the 2023 Super Bowl?
If it does not, the NFL will rightly be seen as endorsing these blatantly unconstitutional and discriminatory bills.
How much more damage does the Legislature have to do to those who seek health care, to those who seek support, to those dealing with horrible trauma and to those whose only wish is to exercise their right to vote, before the NFL will act?
Truth from the dad of a transgender son
A while back, before the bills attacking transgender youth and the victims of rape or incest were signed by Gov. Doug Ducey, who wouldn’t even admit that trans people exist, The Arizona Republic printed an op-ed by Derrick Fiedler, an Army veteran and captain in the Arizona Army National Guard, as well as the father of a transgender son.
Fiedler has been deployed numerous times and served in war zones.
When the rest of us discuss the possibility of the NFL moving the Super Bowl we tend to get lost in the economics, as if – in a discussion like this – money represents the bottom line. Profits. Tax revenue.
It doesn’t.
In his essay for The Republic, Capt. Fiedler points out what is the real bottom line.
He wrote in part:
“I want to remind Gov. Doug Ducey, our lawmakers and fellow citizens that it is not the business of this government, or any government, to legislate the individual life choices of its citizens that do not infringe upon the rights of others to exercise their liberty …
“My child’s sense of who he is does not pose a threat to anyone. It is rather bills such as these proposed that pose a threat to all of us … I’m willing to put my life on the line for the rights and liberties of all Americans, whether I agree with their beliefs and values or not …
“My family has made enormous sacrifices and proven our civic virtue. Now is the time that I’m asking lawmakers to stand up for my rights, my child’s rights, my family’s rights as Americans and human beings who are merely pursuing life, liberty and happiness.”
This abuse of power will continue so long as corporations continue to turn a blind eye to the actions of MAGA/QAnon radicalized Republicans in Arizona. If corporations want to continue doing business in Arizona, they must step up and do the morally righteous thing to do. Corporations need to publicly oppose and condemn this legislation, and to cut off all campaign donations to these MAGA/QAnon radicalized Republican politicians and the Republican aligned organizations and PACs that support them.
Otherwise, corporations will face a “name them and shame them” campaign of boycotts.
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“After new voting restrictions, a renewed push to move the 2023 Super Bowl out of Arizona”, https://kjzz.org/content/1769034/after-new-voting-restrictions-renewed-push-move-2023-super-bowl-out-arizona
Citing ongoing efforts by state leaders to pass more voting restrictions, a local activist is doubling down on calls for the NFL to pull next year’s Super Bowl from Arizona.
Rev. Warren Stewart, senior pastor at Phoenix’s First Institutional Baptist Church, has been calling for the move since last year.
“The reason we launched the block on the Super Bowl was because of bills passed by the legislature and the governor signed last year, so now he’s added to that, so he’s worsened the issue, supporting voter suppression,” said Stewart.
Stewart says the recently-passed HB 2492, which requires proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections and may force thousands of Arizonans to re-register, is unconstitutional.
Stewart says if the NFL doesn’t listen to the request, he will move on to advocating to the NFL Players Association.
Corporations are cowering from the newly aggressive authoritarianism of the GQP. Catherine Rampel writes, “This Republican about-face is so much worse than ‘cancel culture’”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/04/republicans-embrace-trumps-approach-using-power-bully-opponents/
In today’s Republican Party, the primary economic role of the state is not to get out of the way. It is, instead, to reward friends and crush political enemies.
Fox News [propagandist] Laura Ingraham expressed the new ethos in a recent monologue threatening companies that advocated for LGBTQ rights, ballot access, racial justice and sundry other political stances that are anathema in today’s GOP.
“When Republicans, they get back into power, Apple and Disney need to understand one thing: Everything will be on the table,” Ingraham warned. “Your copyright, trademark protection. Your special status within certain states. And even your corporate structure itself. The antitrust division at Justice needs to begin the process of considering which American companies need to be broken up once and for all for competition’s sake, and ultimately for the good of the consumers who pay the bills.”
This might have been an unusually eloquent articulation of Republicans’ punitive new approach to economic policy, but it is hardly unique to Ingraham.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is furious that Disney has publicly criticized his new law prohibiting classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity (nicknamed the “Don’t Say Gay” law); beyond using his bully pulpit to rail against Disney’s supposed indecency, he has threatened to cancel Disney’s half-century-old special status under Florida law that enables the company to effectively govern itself on the grounds of its theme parks. Similarly, last year, DeSantis signed a (likely unconstitutional) law to punish tech companies for privately determined content-moderation decisions, and another law that fines private companies that attempt to set vaccination requirements in their workplaces.
In other states, such as Georgia, GOP politicians have punished private companies for taking supposedly “woke” stands on issues such as gun violence. Republicans in Congress have likewise tried to use antitrust enforcement and other government levers to punish companies whose public stances on voting rights or internal policies on content moderation they dislike.
This approach to governance was expertly modeled by Donald Trump, who as president frequently used the power of the state to reward friends and punish perceived political enemies.
He did this through tax law, tariff policy and other proposed subsidies that chose winners and losers according to their political allegiances. He selectively enforced energy policies, such as allowing offshore drilling, to dole out favors to friends. He allegedly attempted to block a government contract to Amazon because its founder, Jeff Bezos, owns The Post; he also tried to raise the prices the retail giant pays for U.S. Postal Service shipping. He launched a bogus antitrust investigation into car companies that had opposed his lax emissions standards. He threatened to revoke the “licenses” of broadcast media firms whose coverage he disliked.
And that’s not getting into all the times he tried to weaponize his presidency to prosecute or otherwise punish politicians and private citizens (rather than companies).
At the time, these behaviors might have seemed like an aberration from standard GOP rhetoric and policy, the ravings and abuses of a would-be authoritarian leader.
[B]eyond their halfhearted complaints, Trump’s fellow partisans did little to restrain him. Now his instincts have infected the rest of the right, from the Republicans in the federal government and Fox News on down.
This is far scarier than the “cancel culture” phenomenon Republicans so often decry.
Cancel culture, however ill-defined, generally refers to the use of voluntary social pressure to punish those whose views are deemed somehow unacceptable — through public rebukes, boycotts, shunnings, firings or other refusals to engage with some persona non grata in the public square. Republicans (like Democrats) have of course engaged in all these behaviors and worse: Trump himself frequently called for boycotts and firings, including over the peaceful expression of political speech.
But now his party is attempting codify these responses into law, using the power and weapons of the state against those who disagree with them.
If we’re relying on Corporations to save anyone we’re in some deep, deep dog-sheegies.
The GQP hates taxes, so there is no downside in the long term for Corporate America to support them.
Any short term losses from boycotts will be more than offset later with another Paul Ryan style 2017 tax deal if/when they retake Congress and the Senate in 2022/2024.
Corporations only care about money.
Corporations only care about money.
Corporations only care about money.
Corporations only care about money.
Corporations only care about money.