Leading corporations urge Supreme Court to strengthen LGBTQ protections in workplace

Many of America’s best-known companies joined a letter to the Supreme Court this week to argue that the court should rule in favor of recognizing gender identity and sexual orientation as protected under existing civil rights statutes.

In a court filing more than 200 companies including Amazon, Microsoft, and Coca-Cola argued that only federal protection would serve as an adequate deterrent to discrimination against LGBTQ individuals.

{mosads}”LGBT-inclusive workplaces result in stronger work performance by all employees. When LGBT employees feel safe to be themselves in the workplace, ‘everybody’s productivity is enhanced, including straight and nontransgender colleagues,’ ” the companies wrote in court filings, citing a study from the Center for American Progress.

“[But] [e]ven where companies voluntarily implement policies to prohibit sexual orientation or gender identity discrimination, such policies are not a substitute for the force of law,” the filing continued.

“The patchwork of incomplete state or local laws [do not offer] sufficient protection — for example, they cannot account for the cross-state mobility requirements of the modern workforce.”

Federal protection, they argued, was necessary to make up the gaps and ensure equal protection for LGBTQ people across the country.

“Recognizing that Title VII protects LGBT employees would benefit individual businesses, and the economy as a whole, by removing an artificial barrier to the recruitment, retention and free flow of talent,” the companies argued.

The companies were brought together to join the amicus curiae brief by several major organizations working to advance LGBTQ equality, including the Human Rights Campaign and Lambda Legal.

A spokesperson for HRC told The Associated Press that businesses in America had come to recognize that supporting LGBTQ causes was good for business.

“At this critical moment in the fight for LGBTQ equality, these leading businesses are sending a clear message to the Supreme Court that LGBTQ people should, like their fellow Americans, continue to be protected from discrimination,” Jay Brown, a vice president at HRC, told the news service.

“These employers know firsthand that protecting the LGBTQ community is both good for business and the right thing to do,” Brown added.