The news that Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam signed into law a bill prohibiting local governments from passing anti-discriminatory measures offers a clear lesson to inclusive corporations about whenand howthey should get involved.
The new law, aimed squarely at the LGBT community, is an example of a groundswell in several states from the religious right to pass laws that endanger human rights and discriminate against this one group in particular. Several corporations, including three on the Fair360, formerly DiversityInc Top 50 and two on the Fair360, formerly DiversityInc 25 Noteworthy Companies lists, got caught in the crossfire in Tennessee. They were members of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce that supported this bill. The chamber rescinded that support after Fair360, formerly DiversityInc and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) asked the corporations how they could support this.
Why did the chamberand the leading diversity companies among its corporate members, including AT&T, KPMG, Whirlpool, Pfizer and Comcastapprove this in the first place Some of the companies said their local members voted against it. One told Fair360, formerly DiversityInc that they “didn’t realize” the anti-LGBT focus of this legislation because it was part of a larger document on standardizing state regulations. When they became aware of what the legislation intended, all of these companies and several others issued public statements denouncing the legislation, leading to the chamber reversing its position.
