I Helped Make Corporations Woke, and I Regret It - WSJ
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
I sat in the Washington office of a major airline's head of government relations, where we were joined by the top lobbyist for one of America's largest hotel chains. It was 2013, and I was president of the gay conservative group Log Cabin Republicans. I had come to secure corporate support for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would have banned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Pressure from leading corporations, I correctly assumed, would push waffling Republicans to vote for the legislation.
What business did airlines and hotel chains have weighing in on gay-rights legislation? None. In fact, doing so could even be bad business, as the lobbyist explained: "We already have a longstanding LGBT nondiscrimination policy, which actually puts us at a competitive advantage as a more appealing employer for gay people."
“But count us in,” the hotel rep sighed. Avoiding the public flogging the company would take if it failed to support the bill was worth the cost of losing an edge in hiring. Months later, ENDA passed the Senate with the votes of 14 Republicans. (It never made it through the House.)
If the gay-rights movement in the U.S. didn’t ignite the trend of corporations taking stands on cultural issues, it was definitely a prime accelerant. And I was there writing op-eds that declared corporate backing for gay causes was “a sign of success.”
It was also completely unnecessary. Market forces organically shaped a culture in which almost every American now believes in equal job opportunities for gay people. And we’d have same-sex marriage in all 50 states today with or without 379 major corporations filing friend-of-the-court briefs with the Supreme Court.
The trend I helped begin, I now realize, was a disaster. In the past three years, major U.S. corporations have weighed in on everything from abortion and Black Lives Matter to election laws—even as the American public overwhelmingly wishes they wouldn’t. A 2021 report by the Brunswick Group found that 63% of corporate executives felt “unequivocally” that companies should speak out on social issues, while only 36% of Americans agree. A recent Journal poll found that 63% of respondents wished that companies wouldn’t take public stands on political and social issues.
Corporate activism turns off consumers and exposes C-suite hypocrisy. Companies demand “equity” in America while profiting from human-rights abuses in China. Or underwriting abortions for employees while maintaining anemic maternity-leave policies. Or issuing proclamations of “antiracism” by all-white executive teams.
Overcoming self-silencing requires turning against the forces that brought us here. American consumers need to call CEOs out for the chasm between their sermonizing and the scant public support for it. Decent Americans must unite and deliver an unequivocal message: If you want to get political, run for office—otherwise, focus on the bottom line.
My own efforts are no longer spent in boardrooms with executives and lobbyists. Instead, I have been rallying grass-roots activists so we can take on corporations’ double standards and push them back to neutrality.
We’re putting companies such as Walmart and American Express on defense for subjecting employees to propaganda and discrimination. We’re supporting student organizations that would otherwise be deplatformed at schools such as Emory University, and we’re playing a role in Facebook ’s rule-making process.
Holding corrupt institutions accountable is penance for my part in getting America into this mess. These days, I’m committed to getting us out of it.
Mr. Angelo is president of the New Tolerance Campaign.
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From the "gay-rights" activist who started all the corporate wokeness shit.
It is amazng how much damage one person can cause in a free society. Didn't he realize that other lefties would want to pressure American business into standing for all the other toxins the left believes in? The only question now is how to correct this mess?
The politicization of everything is exhausting.
But that’s the culture war for you. Democrats change the culture, norms etc and then try to destroy anyone who objects.
They usually run a ludicrous idea up the flagpole and if people think there is nothing to worry about because it will never become the norm, it then becomes normalized. The presidency of Joe Biden proved that, if nothing else. They need to be stopped as soon as they start.
Yet every other poll shows that Americans want corporations to be socially involved. His rant sounds much like sour grapes as Mr. Angelo is gay.
It would seem that the only toxins are those that are stuck in the past.
Every other poll also showed a big red wave too.
So... Where should gay people work?
Wherever they want. Why?
To be LGTB in the gop is akin to Jews being Nazis!
Don't you mean LGBTBQ....R..S..Kuck...dada?
I looked through the websites material.
This is basically a white grievance campaign , but also is in a frenzy about "free speech", (defend Elon Musk), old grudges ( they attack Al Sharpton for long ago comments from 1992 ), the NBA for its public expressions of anti-racism, various companies who the right wing outfit says teach "CRT", and on and on .
There are better things to do with one's life than be obsessed with "wokeness" , which is what this really comes down to.
And here he described himself as a gay conservative.
Why do you suppose he was the first to pressure corporate America into promoting homosexuality?
He wasn't the first corporate gay advocate!
Log Cabin Republicans are a fringe group...
Link please...
Gregory Angelo was not even born at the beginning of the gay rights movement...
That is irrelevant. You just said: "He wasn't the first corporate gay advocate!"
I asked you to back it up and obviously you can't.
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Actually he wasn't, because that is not what he did. He did promote the employment rights of all people including Trans people. I do not know that he pressured them into either, as that requires someplace to pressure from and somewhere to pressure towards, neither of which I see in the article.
Indeed there is this statement:
As far as your claim that he was the first to do this, I doubt that he was, but I am not going to the trouble of finding the others because it takes more of my valuable time than it is worth.
These high minded social activists are shocked and amazed that corporations would exploit them? Seems they've been hoist by their own petard.