The Tennessee Chamber of Commerce - chaired by Nissan, and whose other board members include such companies as FedEx, AT&T, Comcast, DuPont, Pfizer, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Caterpillar, KPMG, Whirlpool, Embraer, Alcoa, and United HealthCare - actively lobbied for a religious right bill in the Tennessee legislature that would rescind Nashville's civil rights protections for its gay and trans citizens, and which bans every city in Tennessee from passing any civil rights laws, for anyone, ever again.
The bill passed yesterday. It's on its way to the state's Republican governor for his signature, unless he vetoes it.
And these companies led the way in making it happen. And let me reiterate, these companies aren't just members of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce. These compares are all on the board of directors of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce. They run the TN Chamber.
Joe and I just launched a campaign to pressure the governor to veto the bill, and to punish every company involved in making this bigoted legislation happen. Please join our campaign today and sign this open letter to the companies involved. We're going to be writing a lot about this in the coming days.
Make no mistake, this was legislative gay-bashing at its worst. The legislation was crafted by the religious right in order to repeal Nashville's new ordinance protecting gay and trans residents from discrimination. Apparently not discriminating against their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees was just too much to ask from FedEx, AT&T, Comcast, DuPont, Pfizer, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Caterpillar, KPMG. Whirlpool, Embraer, Alcoa, and United HealthCare. According to the TN chamber of commerce, of which they all site on the board, abiding by such protections would be too much of an "additional burden."
Yes, not discriminating against your own employees is so burdensome.
And don't for a minute by the chamber's excuse that this is about business, not prejudice. Every other minority is protected in the state under federal law. Gays and trans are not. The law was the idea of the religious right. The lead lobbyist on the law was the religious right. The only victim of the law was the LGBT community.
Tell me again how this was only about business.
And don't think that this is only about Tennessee. If the religious right, and their new corporate henchmen, are successful in repealing current, and banning future, gay rights law in Tennessee, they'll do the same thing in every single state until only a handful of states protect our community.
This has to stop now.
FedEx, AT&T, Comcast, DuPont, Pfizer, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Caterpillar, KPMG. Whirlpool, Embraer, Alcoa, and United HealthCare don't know the meaning of pain. They just ticked off the wrong community.
Please sign our open letter to each of those companies, demanding they immediately withdraw their support for this hateful legislation, and that they tell the governor to veto the bill now.
This is only the first step. We are not going to let these companies get away with this. Stay tuned.
The bill passed yesterday. It's on its way to the state's Republican governor for his signature, unless he vetoes it.
And these companies led the way in making it happen. And let me reiterate, these companies aren't just members of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce. These compares are all on the board of directors of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce. They run the TN Chamber.
Joe and I just launched a campaign to pressure the governor to veto the bill, and to punish every company involved in making this bigoted legislation happen. Please join our campaign today and sign this open letter to the companies involved. We're going to be writing a lot about this in the coming days.
Make no mistake, this was legislative gay-bashing at its worst. The legislation was crafted by the religious right in order to repeal Nashville's new ordinance protecting gay and trans residents from discrimination. Apparently not discriminating against their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees was just too much to ask from FedEx, AT&T, Comcast, DuPont, Pfizer, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Caterpillar, KPMG. Whirlpool, Embraer, Alcoa, and United HealthCare. According to the TN chamber of commerce, of which they all site on the board, abiding by such protections would be too much of an "additional burden."
Yes, not discriminating against your own employees is so burdensome.
And don't for a minute by the chamber's excuse that this is about business, not prejudice. Every other minority is protected in the state under federal law. Gays and trans are not. The law was the idea of the religious right. The lead lobbyist on the law was the religious right. The only victim of the law was the LGBT community.
Tell me again how this was only about business.
And don't think that this is only about Tennessee. If the religious right, and their new corporate henchmen, are successful in repealing current, and banning future, gay rights law in Tennessee, they'll do the same thing in every single state until only a handful of states protect our community.
This has to stop now.
FedEx, AT&T, Comcast, DuPont, Pfizer, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Caterpillar, KPMG. Whirlpool, Embraer, Alcoa, and United HealthCare don't know the meaning of pain. They just ticked off the wrong community.
Please sign our open letter to each of those companies, demanding they immediately withdraw their support for this hateful legislation, and that they tell the governor to veto the bill now.
This is only the first step. We are not going to let these companies get away with this. Stay tuned.
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