The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Has a Coming-Out Party

(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- The venerable U.S. Chamber of Commerce—the biggest U.S. lobbying organization and the voice of business on Capitol Hill—is coming out. After decades of silence on issues of sexual orientation and gender identity, it’s become a staunch supporter of the proposed federal Equality Act, which makes explicit civil rights protections for LGBT citizens.

The chamber’s new position isn’t brave, exactly. The group’s stance echoes the one its members have almost uniformly endorsed. With Congress deadlocked on LGBT issues and some mostly Southern states pushing laws that would erode court wins for gay rights, Amazon.com, Apple, and Walt Disney and other big companies have been leading voices calling for equality. “We’re a member-driven organization,” says Neil Bradley, the chamber’s chief policy officer. “Based on our discussion with our members and our mandate for what we’re to be for, we think the policy matches up with that.”

The chamber had declined plenty of previous opportunities to stake out a position on LGBT workplace rights, says Bradley, pointing to the group’s neutral stance on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, also known as ENDA, which was proposed unsuccessfully 11 times from 1994 through 2013 and would have extended civil rights protections to LGBT employees. A majority of Americans still live in states where it’s legal to fire someone, or deny them housing, if they are LGBT. “It’s fair to say that in that intervening decade, for employers across the country, this has become more of an issue that they’re dealing with, and one in which they have a firmer, more certain position,” Bradley says.

To some degree, the chamber is also playing catch-up with its own state chapters. Even in Ohio, home to a number of so-called religious freedom laws that allow people to refuse some actions that go against their beliefs, the state chamber has endorsed statewide civil rights protections for gay and transgender residents, says Alana Jochum, executive director of Equality Ohio. “This has been building for a while,” says Jochum. And while the chamber’s new position may be familiar to some, “it may be game changing to help others to realize this really is an economic issue.”

This spring the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation sponsored workshops in Virginia, Ohio, and Florida to make the business case for LGBT inclusion in the workplace. The idea built on a successful partnership with Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation around “kindness” in the office, says Marc DeCourcey, who leads the foundation’s Corporate Citizenship Center.

In all, more than 500 people attended the workshops, including representatives of Disney, PNC Financial Services Group, and United Airlines. One attendee, Dave Bornmann, chief marketing officer of software company Naylor Association Solutions, says he never expected his road map to LGBT inclusion would come from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “There’s a part of me that’s a little embarrassed that I hadn’t thought about it sooner,” says Bornmann. He says he feels perfectly comfortable as an out executive at Naylor, but support might be less evident for others at the 500-employee company or for potential job candidates. Naylor doesn’t yet have an LGBT employee group, and its website, which he oversees, doesn’t explicitly talk about LGBT initiatives. Bornmann says he plans to make changes to address the shortcoming he’s found.

As for the chamber, better late than never, says Bob Witeck, a consultant who’s worked with companies for 25 years, helping them adopt LGBT-friendly policies. Both the Supreme Court and Congress are grappling with the status of civil rights for gay Americans, so having the business lobby take a position may help shift some support, he points out. “We would have welcomed them [the Chamber] 10 years ago, with a lot more enthusiasm,” says Witeck, who attended the chamber’s workshop in Virginia. “But we’re grateful they’re here now.”

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Ellis at jellis27@bloomberg.net, Janet Paskin

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