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Rebranding gay rights as the cause célèbre of corporate America...Something isn't right.
I wonder just how far we have entered into late-capitalism. Is commodification of humanity nearing completion?
We now see gay rights sponsored by Walmart. What the fuck is going on here? I've been told this is a step in the right direction for "ethical" corporate practices.
No, I'm of quite the opposite opinion. We are countering right-wing hate through the leveraging of capital. We've reduced the rights of gay citizens to monetary values.
This isn't real progress. It may seem like it now, but we've built our house on a foundation of sand. All the while, we hand ever more social control over to corporate enterprise. As if we are witnessing some neo-dictate of a collective economic king.
This is the new form of social revolution. It doesn't require anyone to take to the streets. No one needs to occupy state buildings. No radical revolution is needed. Apparently the same kind of influence can be wielded by a few corporate executives in a strongly worded letter.
This is exactly what happened in AZ when they passed SB1062 last year. Big business intervened and Gov. Brewer vetoed the bill.
If the collective consciousness of the citizenry cannot be raised enough to foment legitimate social revolution, then we are in a very, very bad way.
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eridani
(51,907 posts)They used to use that kind of bigotry to get the fundy whackjobs to vote to lower their taxes, but now they realize that tactic is well beyond its "best used by" date.
Myrina
(12,296 posts)Talk about getting people to vote against their own best interests ....
Adrahil
(13,340 posts)Seriously, for a lot of corps, like Eli Lilly here in Indiana, it's a matter of being able to attract and retain top talent. It you're trying to hire a biochemist who happens to be gay, you don't want to have to fight against the image of your state being anti-gay, right?
Response to Adrahil (Reply #2)
Zorra This message was self-deleted by its author.
NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)This has been a long-term campaign for civil rights. The people on the ground fighting for the rights of our gay brothers and sisters has been consistent, unwavering, and ignored or slighted by those at the top of the political and business sectors for a long time. Those grassroots people who have been amazingly consistent for decades is paying off. Without help from the top, they have taken their case to family, friends, organizations and groups, etc.. They built the groundswell from the bottom. What you are watching now is more about partial payoffs for all of the hard work. Acceptance is finally being recognized by those at the top. Obama only took his stand when it was politically expedient to do so. Just as corporations are doing. It is now in their favor to do so, all because of the amazing and relentless ground campaign waged by some truly amazing people who will never get the credit for their work. This is what a bottom up movement looks like.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)and the change keeps coming due to those continuing efforts.
I disagreed with you on your reply about Hillary having the support of the Dem Left. But agree with you here.
See....we can all get along in many ways and agree to disagree inothers. :smile:
Not only that, I can make an amazing argument against myself on the point to which we do disagree. I might not be in as much disagreement as you think on that point, although I do often argue that point.
H2O Man
(73,537 posts)In the classic film "A Hard Day's Night," there is a scene where George encounters employees from an agency, seeking to capitalize on youth culture.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)in the streets, in Cathedrals, in DC, in every State Capitol, in every world Capitol.
The OP says this "It doesn't require anyone to take to the streets. No one needs to occupy state buildings. No radical revolution is needed."
But it was needed, it did happen, it's just that most Straight folks ignored it, for years and years and years and years. The fact that some businesses are now on our side is a prize that was won in a thousand ways, up to and including the rise of out LGBT people in large businesses.
You and the OP are walking in on a movie that has been running for decades and reviewing the last few minutes of action. 'Why, they never got arrested or occupied a building' they say, having missed the first few acts of the film. 'It's like it was all handed to them'.
The first actions by ACT UP NY in 1987 were:
March, 1987: Outraged by the government's mismanagement of the AIDS crisis, concerned individuals unite to form the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power. Our first demonstration takes place three weeks later on March 24th on Wall Street, the financial center of the world, to protest the profiteering of pharmaceutical companies (especially Burroughs Wellcome, manufacturer of AZT). Seventeen people are arrested. Shortly after the demonstration, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announces it will shorten its drug approval process by two years.
June 1, 1987: ACT UP joins other national activist groups in civil disobedience at the White House in Washington, DC. In a display of AIDS-phobia, the police wear rubber gloves while arresting protesters. Another demonstration is held at the Third International Conference on AIDS.
June 4, 1987: When Northwest Orient Airlines refuses passage to people with AIDS (PWAs), ACT UP erupts in protest at the airline's New York offices. Two suits are brought against Northwest. The policy is reversed.
http://www.actupny.org/documents/capsule-home.html
That link will do a year by year for you.
I'm also linking to the text of a Harvey Milk speech, which you should read in it's entirety. Know that when he mentions the CDC he refers to the California Democratic Council. 'Jarvis-Gann' is CA Prop 13, and 'Briggs' is the ballot measure that would have fired all the gay teachers and their allies.
http://www.danaroc.com/guests_harveymilk_122208.html
el_bryanto
(11,804 posts)Issue one - Corporations wield too much power in our politics and our society.
Issue two - Bigotry against LGBT people is seen increasingly as indefensible.
Corporations are not yet at the stage where they can operate by fiat - coke still hast to compete with pepsi, walmart still has to compete with target. So in that marketplace there's a competitive edge to be found by supporting LGBT equality. That's a positive development.
But that doesn't change the very real concerns with issue one; yes it's nice that these corporations are using their power, this one time, in a beneficial way. But that doesn't mean that they are "tamed." We still need to see what we can do about bringing them in line through regulation and unions.
Bryant
Romulox
(25,960 posts)are not only separate things, but diametrically opposed things.
This is how corporate America sets up that false dichotomy.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Finally -finally!- achieve equality. Read it here folks.
Romulox
(25,960 posts)bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Romulox
(25,960 posts)bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Too many people ignored the issue when it was is that got the shitty paychecks. Now that it's everyone, you see some resentment and fear of competing with us on a level playing field.
Romulox
(25,960 posts)bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Instead of insisting on equality now? I don't agree with that. That trickle down shit will leave us on the back of the bus again.
That's what I hear from many obsessed with Wall St here. Do not agree.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)civil rights are 'distractions'
Romulox
(25,960 posts)http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014664339
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023259878#post22
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025764803#post45
Also see the works of such leftwing 'heroes' such as John Pilger and Ralph Nader, who belittle GLBT rights and women's rights as issues while race-baiting President Obama.
Response to Romulox (Reply #21)
geek tragedy This message was self-deleted by its author.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)There are very few ways to pressure entrenched forces of bigotry. One of them is through economic leverage.
It would be incredibly foolish--to the point of malpractice-- for any civil rights advocate to refuse to use the available tools to advance their cause.
Corporations feel the pressure because their customers apply it. And they thus serve as a conduit through which that pressure is applied to the entrenched forces of bigotry.
Why should they only be considered a tool for wealth aggregation when they can also be used effectively to promote social justice?
It is real progress.
That is not reducing anyone's rights to anything. It's operating in the system we have to do the best we can for civil rights.
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,710 posts)Of course that's a crude and oversimplified analogy but money is power, always was and always will be, and if glbtq folks and their allies are using their power to legally punish those who discriminate I support them.
betterdemsonly
(1,967 posts)perhaps a diversion from tpp. The war against women in Texas was and is much more brutal than this law, and for what ever reason it provoked no corporate protests. Several big corporations moved to Texas during that period.
former9thward
(32,005 posts)And does business in nations, like China, where no one has any rights. Pardon if I don't take my lectures from him.
betterdemsonly
(1,967 posts)former9thward
(32,005 posts)betterdemsonly
(1,967 posts)former9thward
(32,005 posts)So he does not get to lecture me on anything moral. Interesting you never answered my question.
betterdemsonly
(1,967 posts)our own country than other countries. While it is a curious phenomenon that he cares about this issue over others, to say he has no right to say anything is absurd on its face, and encourages vices to continue forever.
former9thward
(32,005 posts)Not me. I'm not an authoritarian.
dissentient
(861 posts)of civil rights?
Yea, I'm not buying it either.
MineralMan
(146,308 posts)Given the long, long fight LGBTQ people have had to gain broad public acceptance, I see this as corporate America finally stepping up to the plate and recognizing reality. I find your point of view on this pretty cynical, and dismissive of the long pull it has taken to get to this point.
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)Common human decency is ignored until a price tag is attached and it sells.
Dreamer Tatum
(10,926 posts)ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)
Zorra
(27,670 posts)I'm watching the Final Four, fercrissakes. And c'mon, ya know? Who really gives a frack about teh gays, anyway?
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Once in a while, money and principles line up.
Not always, but it happens.
The net neutrality argument, as many pointed out here, was a contest between the profit making entities in content production and the profit making entities in content distribution. While basically a Clash of Titans, there was a side of that argument that was more suited to the common good.
On edit: As the Russian and Allied forces were converging across the final eastern and western fronts of the war, the people in the middle of that had a decided preference about which "enemy" they wanted to capture their area first.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)They're doing it because they feel there is a financial gain to be made. Why is their a financial gain to be made? Boycotts and recruiting.
Which means your revolution on LGBT rights is already happening - it costs business more to be bigots.
We don't have to change in the same way previous generations changed. Just because people are not taking to the streets does not mean changes are not happening.
YoungDemCA
(5,714 posts)What I think is happening is that representatives of Corporate America are supporting LGBT rights now because opposing them is beginning to hurt their bottom line. However, it's important to note that Corporate America is not driving any of the gains made by LGBT Americans here. They are simply responding to several decades of LGBT organizing, agitation, and activism-a good deal of it radical in orientation. What you are observing is the effect, not the cause, IMHO.
I, too, long for more collective action on the part of organized social justice movements, from the bottom up. But we shouldn't discount the gains made by the LGBT community just because the dominant/mainstream corporate culture is beginning to "get it." At the same time, we should never lose sight of how much work still needs to be done. And as you noted, the co-optation and institutionalization of diversity is something we ought to be wary of in this context.
This is a complex issue, and I can see both sides here.
JEB
(4,748 posts)are based on money and money alone.
pampango
(24,692 posts)we can't let that influence what we believe in. If we need any external signal that we are right, look at the far-right of tea partiers and religious fundamentalists. I'm sure that RW blogs are irate at big corporations - at the moment, at least.
