Tag Archives: Don’t Say Gay

Are you (or your company) complicit in the mass killings at the Colorado Springs LGBTQ+ Club?

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Local Colorado Springs memorial to the 5 people murdered at Club Q (Photo KOAA, Alasyn Zimmerman)

Not again! As an out and proud gay man, I feel both sick and angry when I heard the news of a hate-filled AR-15 gunman killing five and injuring at least 25 at Colorado Spring’s Club Q. Club Q was hosting a drag show during the attack to commemorate the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which is a time to focus on the disproportionate number of transgender people killed by violence. (Read my initial blog about this day.) An all-ages family friendly drag brunch was scheduled for the next day.

Why does this keep happening and who is to blame?

A large part of the blame must go to many conservative Republican politicians who continue to demonize the queer community.

US Representative Lauren Boebert (R-Colo) says that drag performances are intended to “groom” children. And what? Turn them into gay or transgender kids?

My own state’s North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson referred to LGBTQ+ people as filth.

Florida passed a law which basically outlaws mentioning gay people or gay families in grades K through 3. What are young kids living with two moms or two dads to think when their own state government sends the message that there is something sick or sinful or wrong with their families?

This continued messaging of hate against any community incites violence. It gives permission to people that because these “others” are a scourge to society, it is perfectly fine to kill and hurt them.

Please consider your role in the increasing number of mass killings in our country.

Now to the hard discussion. Anyone who votes for political leaders who demean any group with hate speech is just as responsible for those night club murders as the gunman who fired the bullets. If you care about life, you have the responsibility to tell the people you vote for and the political party you support that you will not support any form of hate. Your failure to do so makes you complicit in these lost lives.

And not only are individuals who vote to blame, but companies that give political contributions to these hate-mongering leaders at the same time while waving the pride flag and telling their employees they support all diversity are totally hypocritical. We saw that Disney Company could not get away with proclaiming their LGBTQ+ inclusiveness while at the same time donating money to Floridian lawmakers who passed their “Don’t Say Gay” Law. (Read my blog “Companies cannot claim to be LGBTQ+ supportive while contributing to anti-LGBTQ+ legislators” that I published back in April. It tells part of this Disney story.)

Next time you read about a mass killing, please examine your own heart and actions, and ascertain if you are contributing to this pandemic of murder, or doing your part to fight it.

Companies cannot claim to be LGBTQ+ supportive while contributing to anti-LGBTQ+ legislators

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Walt Disney employees and demonstrators during a rally against the Florida “Don’t Say Gay” bill at Griffith Park in Glendale, California, Alisha Jucevic | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Companies cannot “have their cake and it eat it too” by claiming to be supportive of their LGBTQ+ employees, customers and community, and yet make political contributions to lawmakers who harm and demonize LGBTQ+ people. Companies can no longer straddle the fence; they must choose sides and take a strong stand as anti-LGBTQ proposals are flooding state legislatures at a record pace (link to Bloomberg article.)

The latest high visibility situation in recent news concerns the Disney company. They have long been considered a great supporter of the LGBTQ+ community, but then when the infamous “Don’t Say Gay” law restricting discussion of LGBTQ issues in public schools was voted into law in Florida, Disney at first issued a tepid lukewarm statement about the proposed legislation while donating money to politicians who were voting for it.

About a hundred employees at Disney staged a walk out in protest, and I was in full support of their action. An organization simply cannot claim they support a community, yet provide money to those people who are seeking to harm that community. Disney’s CEO has since come out with a much stronger statement against this harmful bill which basically denies the existence and legitimacy of LGBTQ+ families, and has pledged to no longer fund politicians who legislate harm and hatred of LGBTQ+ people.

Disney has their annual “gay day” at their theme parks, but do they really stand with us, or just want our money? Photo from Shaul Schwarz for TIME

It is a common practice (yet a very bad idea) for companies to make political contributions. The concept is to support and try to elect legislators who will pass laws that will benefit your business so you can make more profit. But far too often, this places profitability over stated values and principals, and compromises integrity. And the LGBTQ+ community is not going to quietly sit by while companies throw us empty words of so-called support while giving money to those who harm us.

Two final thoughts

First, kudos to my former employer IBM. They are one of the very few large companies that has never made political contributions. (Read their governance statement about this.)

Second, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) which annually measures and scores companies’ LGBTQ+ support through their corporate equality index (CEI), needs to take a much more rigorous look at this. So many companies are now scoring 100% on the HRC scorecard, but I think much of it is empty words and platitudes instead of real action. HRC does have a practice of deducting 25 points from the rating of any company that does harmful things against the LGBTQ+ community, and now they need to uncover any company that contributes money to lawmakers who vote for anti-LGBTQ laws smack them with a “minus 25.” HRC, are you listening?

The LGBTQ+ community and our allies must continue to speak out loudly against any company that contributes money to politicians who harm us, including boycotts and walkouts, until this arcane harmful practice ends.