Gay Corporate Texas

[Dover]

Austin Chronicle
BY AMY SMITH

If what's good for business is good for Texas, as our state leaders routinely remind us, then the employee handbook of, say, SBC Communications, should be required reading for lawmakers clamoring to ink their "values" into the Bill of Rights. That'll never happen, of course – at least not before a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage goes before voters Nov. 8 – but who better than corporate America to teach business-friendly legislators about "values" that embrace, rather than condemn, diversity?
Make no mistake: Market forces, not liberal ideologies, demand that companies take an enlightened view of creating cultures that appeal to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender employees and consumers. As SBC spokesman Walt Sharp put it, "We simply believe in the importance of inclusiveness and in policies that reflect the company's employee base and its customers."

This past spring, while state House and Senate leaders railed against homosexuals and activist judges threatening the institution of marriage, corporate "diversity executives" across Texas were chatting up their companies' progressive stripes in an annual employer survey conducted by the Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign, a GLBT advocacy group. SBC – whose lobbying arm this legislative session was unmatched by any other telecommunications company – is as competitive in filling out the surveys as it is in passing legislation. The San Antonio-based giant scored a top grade of 100%, as did four other Texas companies – Dell Inc., American Airlines, Freescale Semiconductor Inc., and Wyndham International Inc. ..cont'd

http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2005-10-21/pols_feature6.html