Down On Paper

Corporate non-discrimination policies looks good on paper.

Employers reluctant to back LGBT bills
Many point out their own nondiscrimination policies
The Journal Gazette
By Sherry Slater
December 13, 2015

After simmering on the back burner for several months, the question of whether to grant protected legal status to gay, lesbian and transgender people is again threatening to boil over.

Some northeast Indiana business leaders are approaching the topic carefully, afraid they’ll be burned.

But others statewide are turning up the heat.

The Indiana and Indianapolis chambers of commerce have made securing formal protections one of their priorities for the upcoming legislative session. Anything less, they argue, could cause Hoosier businesses to lose customers and the state to lose tourist dollars.
[…]
Indiana Competes, which held a kickoff event in Fort Wayne last week, is another business coalition fighting for new non-discrimination language. The nonpartisan nonprofit has attracted more than 200 members statewide, including large Indianapolis employers and at least a dozen local small businesses.

Company policies are all well and good, but company polices can be changed in the blink of an eye. Look at Saks Fifth Ave

Saks Fifth Avenue’s Hypocrisy: The most amazing part of this whole story is that Saks has a corporate employee handbook, which includes protection for gender identity. But in its lawsuit, Saks claims this doesn’t matter because “employee handbooks are not contracts as a matter of law.”

That is why laws are needed.