One hour passed. Then a second.
When the rainbow-clad floats lining DC’s streets still showed no sign of moving by hour three, we ente𒐪rtained the prospect that some anti-LGBT fanatic had disrupted the progression of the✤ Capital Pride Parade.
The delay was not caused by the Westboro Baptist Church, nor the Family Research Council. By now, you’ve likely heard that the radically liberal group No Justice No Pride had formed a human barricade, shouting down Capital Pride’s corporate sponsors and decrying the presence of law enforcement while preventing a parade of more than 2,000 drag queens, queer dance troupes, lesbian musicians and LGBT organizations of all political stripes from celebrating their right to exist.
On Sunday, No Justice No Pride plans to repeat the spectacle at NYC Pride — its anti-capitalist message overshadowing tꦫhousands of celebrants who quite literally put their lives on the line fighting for a world where the retailers of mainstream America could proudly fly the rainbow flag.
It’s become the grand irony of the far left: Businesses must bake our cakes and photograph our weddings, but they cannot dare offer public🔯💦 — or financial — support for the LGBT cause.
In realit𒆙y, the “corporate America” the left now derides has proven itself a staunch ally of the LGBT community time and again.
In the ab♈sence of federal LGBT non-dꩵiscrimination legislation, corporate America led the charge to protect employees and their partners.
According to the Human Rights Campaign’s 2017 Corporate Equality Index, 🍎a record 515 major companies earned a perfect score for im🌄plementing policies prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation, extending medical benefits to LGBT employees’ spouses and partners and offering transgender-inclusive health-insurance coverage, among a number of other factors.
Worth not♏ing: All 10 of the Capital Pride corporate sponsors that No Justice No Pride singled out in an incendiary social media campaign were among those with the distinction of a perfect score.
Big Business’ support of the LGBT community extends far beyond the bound🌸s of its own employees.
Fully 379 A🌸merican businesses submitted an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to rule in fav𝐆or of marriage equality in 2015.
Support didn’t halt there: Almost five dozen companies representing $670 billion in revenue recently filed a brief in support of transgender student Gavin Grim🧔m in his fight against a school board hellbe🐈nt on denying him his dignity.
Within one month of North Carolina adopting last year’s notorious “bathr꧒oom bill,” the largest independent production studꦜio, Lionsgate, canceled plans to film in Charlotte.
PayPal scrapped plans to build a new facility in the state, and Deutsche Bank froze plans to expand an existing technology development center in Cary, North Carolina.
In fact, 68 major companies joined 🔯to legally register their disapproval of the law, HB 2, in a strong showing of solidarity with the LGBT community.
As so-called “religious freedom” bi♌lls crop🌠 up in southern states, major business owners have been among their most vocal opponents.
Georgia’s governor, Nathan Deal, faced monumental pressure ꦆfrom Salesforce, Disney, Unilever, Intel and clo🙈se to 500 other companies when the discriminatory legislation landed on his own desk.
Business and community objections succe☂ssfully curtailed simil💎ar bills in Colorado and Wyoming.
These are tꦕhe organizations branded by No Justice No Pride as “death merchants”? Give me a break!
Corporate America has played a key role in shaping positive opinions of the LGBT community in areas where individuals may not feel safe to come ou🍌t.
As New Yorkers attend Pride this weekend (taking selfies on iPhones, pulling floats with Ford trucks, staying in Marriott hot🔯els), it’s important to be mindful of — and grateful for — the fact that without corporate America and capitalism, our nation’s move toward full LGBT equality would be neither as fast nor as fulsome.
For that, this LﷺGBT American wo꧂uld like to say, “Thank you.”
Gregory T. Angelo is the national president of Log Cabin Republicans and former chairman of Log Cabin Republicans of New York State.