We've been treated over the last couple of days to terrific examples of, how shall I describe it ... perhaps ... gaywashing? Stern statements of disappointment from NASCAR, tut-tuts and inclusive warbling from WalMart, high-pitched disapproval and indignation from the likes of Yelp, Levi-Strauss and Apple.
Excuse me, but none of this really means shit.
I'm glad Tim Cook expresses his strong disapproval of Indiana's law. I'll be more glad when a single I-pad finds itself pulled off the shelves at the Indianapolis Target Superstore. I guess I'll still be waiting for that next week.
Strauss and Gap issued a joint statement voicing concern.
Well, thanks for your concern, guys. Yeah, the law really sucks. I think we can all agree that we're concerned.
And then there is the shockingly bold statement of Accenture:
We oppose discrimination…We urge Indiana to move quickly to clarify the law and ensure discrimination will not be tolerated.
"Discrimination will not be tolerated?" Why do I feel like I'm listening to a high-school homeroom monitor?
But the most annoying has got to be WalMart. WalMart in its shining nobility has even asked the governor to veto the Arkansas measure.
"Every day in our stores, we see firsthand the benefits diversity and inclusion have on our associates, customers and communities we serve,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in a statement. “It all starts with our core basic belief of respect for the individual. Today’s passage of [the Religious Freedom Restoration Act] threatens to undermine the spirit of inclusion present throughout the state of Arkansas and does not reflect the values we proudly uphold.”
That, my friends, is a load of PR crap.
Political contributions by corporations are the driving force behind everything these wingnut state legislatures do. Scratch the surface of a wingnut in Arkansas and you'll find a campaign contribution winding its way back to Walmart.
Jim Walton and his wife Lynne have contributed $3,000 to extremist Arkansas State Senator Jason Rapert (R-Conway) since December 2010, according to financial reports filed with the Arkansas Secretary of State.
Rapert has faced public scrutiny recently for his anti-gay and anti-choice positions – and for using racially-tinged language to attack President Obama at a rally in 2011.
Do I really need to
check the roll call and see how Mr. Rapert voted?
Of course this is a tiny individual donation that pales to a speck of dust behind Walmart's multi-million dollar efforts through mystery-PACS and other vast repositories of dark money to influence everything from anti-gay legislation to for-profit charter schools to the destruction of unions:
LGBT equality: Among members of Congress ranked on the Human Rights Campaign’s scorecard for the 112th Congress, the overwhelming majority of the Waltons’ campaign contributions from 2005 to 2012—94%—went to those who oppose or are silent on marriage equality. The Walmart PAC doesn’t fare much better—77% of its contributions went to those who oppose or are silent on marriage equality. Additionally, in 2008, Jim Walton gave $75,000 to Arkansas’s Family Council Action Committee. At the time, the organization was supporting a ballot initiative it had sponsored that would prevent gay and lesbian families from serving as adoptive or foster families. Mr. Walton’s contributions came to more than 55% of all money given to support this initiative.
My point is not necessarily to belittle expressions of corporate support for same-sex couples or opposition, as it were, to these despicable pro-Bigotry laws. But it is very easy, and costs almost nothing, for a 21st Century corporate conglomerate to put its finger to the wind and figure out which way the wind is blowing. In fact, it's almost a marketing necessity. It's another thing altogether, however, for them to put their money where their mouth[pieces] are.
While it's heartening to see an outpouring of support from the "business community," the fact is that many of these these PR statements are just that--PR. These corporations have no qualms whatsoever about exercising their cash clout through enormous political contributions when their own interests are at stake. The point is that no corporation, and WalMart is just an extreme example, should be let off the hook by paying loud lip service to equality, and then doing nothing with their outsized political and economic power to see that these heinous measures are repealed.
Or, even more importantly, that the people who write such laws don't get elected in the first place.