Commercial Community: Businesses and the LGBTQIA+ community
Every community has its gathering place.
For some minorities, these havens include religious institutions, family, and sports.
For the LGBTQIA+ community, our safe place has historically been commercial businesses. Bars, nightclubs, discos, roller rinks, that one hipster coffee shop owned by a guy named Chris.
Wherever the community flocks to in search of security, it tends to have its roots in for-profit business, legitimate or not (more on that next week).
Since LGBTQIA+ people are historically tied to companies in a quid-pro-quo (or mutually beneficial agreement), businesses, especially those with many LGBTQIA+ clients, have a social responsibility to support the community.
After all, they have a vested interest in our prosperity and happiness, as we are Chris's most loyal customers.
In the age of Cancel Culture and hard-to-keep secrets, this reigns truer by the day.
We are also motivated to buy from allied companies. Our business allows them to continue contributing to causes that benefit us. It comes full circle.
While that may make these relationships look insincere, I do not mean it that way. I am very thankful for companies that support my community. They make me feel welcomed.
Of course, I give them my money over the store doing harm, or worse, staying dead silent.
We have established that this relationship exists and why. Now it is time to get into the core of our topic.
This blog will discuss how the relationship between allied businesses and the LGBTQIA+ community is and should be a major driver for mental health equality and human rights.
Equality Economy
I already mentioned that for this relationship to work out, it must be mutually beneficial.
No matter how much we would like to live in a non-materialistic society where people do things just because it is the right thing to do, we do not. Commercial businesses support the LGBTQIA+ community when it is economically beneficial.
Charitable actions are rewarding for a company when the action produces good press, profits, assets, or attracts valuable employees, investors, or profitable partnerships.
However, the fact that companies may support pro-LGBTQIA+ causes for an economic benefit actually works in our favor.
Money is king in the corporate world.
If it is profitable to aid us, they will go all in. The drive for cash, even by accident, is a drive for change.
For example, back in 2016, when the HB2 bill (“bathroom bill”) passed in North Carolina, it restricted where the transgender community could use the bathroom in public spaces, including schools.
The business sector immediately fought back.
According to Harvard Business Review, “two equality groups…organized more than 140 major CEOs and business leaders into an open letter to the governor.”
A year into the bill’s life, North Carolina suffered an economic loss of $630 million. The loss was a direct result of business pushback via closed job openings, canceled performances, and shut-down conventions.
The state felt the loss of that $630 million, enough to revoke the law the following year.
Other legislations have also been struck down due to consequences driven by businesses. Indiana’s religious-exemption bill, which allowed firms to turn away LGBTQIA+ clients and job applicants, and Texas’ version of the bathroom bill, received business pushback.
Together those legislations resulted in an estimated $126 million in economic losses. The Indiana bill was amended, and the Texas bill never became law.
Clearly, allied businesses, particularly those with power, can leverage their influence in state economies to protect our human rights.
This is important to mental health equality because human rights violations “significantly influence potential service recipients' access to mental health services” in a negative way.
Additionally, our mental wellbeings are tied to our identity. When these identities are attacked (i.e. when people face human rights violations and moral disrespect), mental health suffers.
In a commercial or capitalistic society, personal identities are tied to purchasing power and social status. Therefore, both our consumer and social status influence our mental health.
That is another reason why the commercial world plays such a massive role in LGBTQIA+ mental health equality. Whether we realize it or not, businesses hold power over our heads, and quite literally.
While that is true for everyone, LGBTQIA+ people face identity attacks more often than cisgender, straight people.
The community is more mentally vulnerable to commercial action or inaction.
The vulnerability of LGBTQIA+ people, the governmental influence of business, and economic ties are enough for the commercial world to take some responsibility for mental health equality.
Who is Lying?
Up until this point, I have pointed out the positive side of this commercial connection.
However, it would be irresponsible to not address the more sinister aspect of the situation. Many corporations, most iconically Chik-Fil-A, fund anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation, groups, and initiatives. While some are unapologetic about these contributions, others try to conceal them through performance activism.
Big corporations especially are guilty of being two-faced. In the press, they support LGBTQIA+ staff, match employee contributions to pro-LGBTQIA+ causes, and put up a pride flag on their Instagram Page for Pride Month.
Behind closed doors, however, while simultaneously engaging in public support, they are donating millions to pass anti-LGBTQIA+ bills, laws, and policies.
A good example would be AT&T. During business hours, they use fancy words, rainbow banners, and other symbols to show their “support” for the community.
However, it was reported by the National Institute on Money in Politics and Corporate Accountability Action that AT&T made over 300 donations to 133 anti-LGBTQIA+ legislations.
We cannot take corporate support at face value.
So, how do we know what companies are being truthful?
That is an area that demands our attention.
Thankfully, initiatives are being taken to lessen the burden on consumers to hunt down the facts for each company. One example is the Freedom for All Americans partnership with the Human Rights Campaign. The partnership produced a statement signed by companies that have inclusive and nondiscriminatory business practices.
Similar initiatives and the media are helping to clear the fog. Still, a good rule of thumb is to always be skeptical when a big corporation claims to support any social cause.
Do your research so that you won't pay for your own downfall.
The Cost of Bigotry
I refer here to the cost paid by the LGBTQIA+ community and the companies who attack us. On both sides, that price tag is high.
The commercial world plays an enormous and growing role in American society. The more influential businesses that do not honestly defend us, the less accepted we feel.
As mentioned earlier, people tie their identities to products/buying power and social roles. So when we see that our chicken nuggets are paying for conversion therapy, we may feel that buying those nuggets is a rejection of our values.
The same can be said with pretty much any product. Tom may say he cares about the environment, but he buys an SUV. Hilda may believe in international child labor laws but still, buy from companies that operate child sweatshops.
When confronted by such realities, people feel like fakes, liars, or hypocrites.
We know that the more they make off our blind or coerced purchases, the more they have to spend on taking away our rights.
Fewer rights equal less standing in society, which produces community-wide mental health issues such as depression, stress, and low self-worth. But this is just the cost LGBTQIA+ pay.
Now let us discuss what it is costing the companies.
The businesses that do support the community are raking in profits. The Queering of Corporate America by Carlos A. Ball, states “adopting and supporting LGBTQ rights positions…help…maximize profits by reaching new customers while hiring and retaining the most qualified employees.”
At the end of the day, the bottom line is the most important. So, if it is true that companies who support the LGBTQIA+ community are making big bucks, would it not be also true that those that do not are missing out?
Well, yes.
Companies that are discriminatory in public and within the confines of the office see reduced worker performance. This leads to higher turnover rates, costing companies millions annually for re-hiring new talent.
For the sales department, the cost of bigotry is in the billions.
By participating in anti-LGBTQIA+ activities, businesses are pushing away an entire demographic. A demographic with an estimated $800 billion in spending power in the US alone.
Even if the firm was to retain just 1% of the community, it would open the door (and their wallets) to $8 billion. If the goal of all businesses is to get maximum revenue with minimum expenses, catering to the LGBTQIA+ community seems more than logical.
But for now, bigoted companies just watch $800 billion walk right past their store and into Chris’s cafe for a cold brew.
As for the LGBTQIA+ community, we enjoy the dopamine boost and the benefit of knowing our coffee just paid for someone’s therapy.
Thanks, Chris!
Sources:
The Queering of Corporate America, How Big Businesses Went from LGBTQ Adversary to Ally by Carlos A. Ball, 2019
Mental Health and Equality by Anne Rogers and David Pilgrim, 2003
https://hbr.org/2002/12/the-competitive-advantage-of-corporate-philanthropy
https://hbr.org/2019/03/why-many-businesses-are-becoming-more-vocal-in-support-of-lgbtq-rights
https://freedomforallamericans.org/business-statement-on-anti-lgbtq-state-legislation/
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/01/why-so-many-businesses-support-lgbt-rights/
