Facing Backlash, Corporations Pull Support for Anti Gay Law

[RyanPsych]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Companies that belong to the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and even the Chamber itself, are backing off from the Chamber's suppport for anti-gay legislation signed by Republican Gov. Bill Haslam on Monday.

UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of the United HealthCare health insurance company which is a member of the Tennessee Chamber, issued a statement that it emailed to this newspaper Monday, stating, "We did not lobby for nor support Tennessee SB632/HB600." The company said its health plans cover domestic partnerships, and points out that it has consistently received a score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, the highest score possible.

In fact, many of the companies belonging to the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce have received high scores on the HRC's Corporate Equality Index, which makes it puzzling as to how the Chamber (initially) went forward with support for such an anti-LGBT measure.

The UnitedHealth Group email came in response to our report yesterday about a coalition of business and religious groups in Tennessee coming together to support the bill, which removes lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender discrimination protections from Nashville, and prohibits any Tennessee municipality from taking up that issue. This legislation was a response to a Nashville ordinance, passed last month, that required any contractors that wished to do business with the city and county to comply with equal protection for sexual orientation and gender identity.

continue reading at: http://www.peoplesworld.org/facing-outrage-corporations-belatedly-pull-support-for-anti-gay-law/

[qb]

1. Um... it's a little late, isn't it? Bastards.

:mad:

[Zenlitened]

2. Yeah, well, timing is everything.

:grr:

[RyanPsych]

3. Seriously

I just don't understand how these companies, that mostly have decent pro-lgbt policies, let the chamber (that they run) support this. Yeesh.

[Uncle Joe]

4. Too little, too late, they got their job done.

Thanks for the thread, RyanPsych.

[louslobbs]

5. It's too late and you can't back off from something you lobbied for, supported and got into law and

then just try to "disavow" your hand in having initiated and pushed the bigoted legislation into law. These companies own this law and until they fight to repeal it, they should suffer the consequences of their hateful actions. I guess they should have thought about the "backlash" before they chose to lobby for hate.
Lou

[southernyankeebelle]

6. Anyone noticed and the southern states seem to be cutting civil rights. Today

its gay rights, tom-morrow is womens rights and then on to segregation. Only in the south can they rise again by cheating and lying to the citizens. People are going to be sorry for begging what they think they want.