New York’s Empire State Building lit up in the rainbow to celebrate last month’s Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage.
The “Wall Street wing” of the Republican Party is working with Democrats and LGBT rights activists to pass sweeping legislation that would make it a federal crime to discriminate against homosexuals and transgenders in housing, education and the job market.
WND reported in earlier this month that the LGBT movement would not be content with the Supreme Court’s June 26 decision legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states. The real goal of the activists, with the generous help of corporate backers, is to parlay the court’s ruling into a wide-ranging civil-rights agenda that weaves its way into almost every nook and cranny of American life – schools, the workplace, even the church.
And it will be corporate America that plays the role of difference-maker in getting U.S. politicians to implement the plan.
The bill introduced last week in both houses of Congress is called the Equality Act.
Forty senators, led by Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., introduced “historic, comprehensive federal legislation to ban discrimination against LGBT Americans,” Merkley reported on his website.
The legislation was filed simultaneously in the House by 158 lawmakers led by Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I.
While all the co-sponsors are Democrats, don’t be fooled. The collective power of America’s corporate behemoths – names like Apple, Nike, General Mills, Facebook, Google, Dow Chemicals, Levi Strauss and American Airlines – have a history of getting their way when bringing pressure to bear on Republican politicians.
Just ask Indiana’s Republican Gov. Mike Pence.
Back in March when he signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the full weight of corporate America came down on his shoulders. Apple CEO Tim Cook, who is openly homosexual, scolded him on morality. Threats to leave the state poured in from Indiana-based businesses Ely Lily, NASCAR, General Electric and Salesforce.
Perhaps the most aggressive stance came from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who said his company was helping employees uncomfortable with Indiana’s new law transfer out of the state.
“CEOs have a lot of power and control over investments in states,” Benioff told CNN. “And we want to invest in states where there is equality. One thing you’re seeing is there is a third political party in this country, which is the party of the CEOs.”
Not to be outdone, the NCAA threatened to pull its lucrative college basketball tournaments from the state.
Sensing a mutiny over the issue, Pence caved. He inserted new language into the law, essentially gutting its protections for religious freedom and turning it into an LGBT rights law.
In June, along came the blowup over the Confederate Flag following the tragic shooting that left nine people dead at a black church in Charleston.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who has never expressed any interest in wading into the flag controversy, suddenly announced the flag would be removed from the Capitol grounds. The New York Times reported that “pressure from the South Carolina business leaders,” encouraged her to take action.
Fast-forward to July and the next big controversy to take center stage was Planned Parenthood, caught trafficking in the body parts of aborted babies in three undercover videos. It was revealed by WND and others that 39 corporate giants including household names like Nike, Levi Strauss, Coca-Cola, AT&T, Converse, Dockers, ExxonMobil, Macy’s, Microsoft and Ford Motor Co. had for years been donating directly to Planned Parenthood’s operations. Only after the recent bad publicity did Ford, Xerox and Coca-Cola announce they would no longer donate to the nation’s largest abortion provider.
Now TIME magazine, in an article Tuesday, said the corporate giants, “long supporters of gay rights,” are coming out of the closet to lobby Congress for the new Equality Act legislation.
What happened in Indiana is “a model that organizers are hoping to replicate with Congress,” according to the Time article. “Federal lawmakers now are considering a sweeping non-discrimination law that would bar individuals from being denied services — including housing and jobs but also mortgages and education — based on their sexuality or gender identity.”
What’s good for gays is good for business
So now, according to TIME, anyone who opposes the LGBT agenda will find themselves not only branded as homophobic but “standing opposed to business interests.”
The roles have essentially been flipped. Conservative, family-oriented Americans traditionally found themselves on the same side as the business community when it came to politics. Now, those who hold onto those values find themselves at odds with those who sell the necessities of life.
Corporate America has cast its lot with the LGBT activists and Planned Parenthood, apparently deciding it has more to lose by siding with traditional family values.
Visa, Gap, Miller, Spotify USA, Starbucks, Whole Foods Market, Absolute Vodka and countless other companies sent congratulatory tweets from their official Twitter accounts following the June 26 Supreme Court decision. Some changed their logos to “Love is Love,” or “#Love Wins,” the slogans of the “marriage equality” movement.
Chobani Yogurt and Wells Fargo, among other companies, ran national TV ads leading up to the June 26 ruling that clearly let the court know whose side they were on. The Chobani ad showed two naked lesbians in bed, eating yogurt.
image: http://www.wnd.com/files/2015/07/chobani-lesbian-tv-advertisement.jpg
Scenes from the Chobani Yogurt ad last month featuring two lesbians in bed.
Those that lit up their buildings in rainbow lights following the decision included Niagara Falls, the Cinderella Castle in Disney World, Terminal Tower in Cleveland, the Empire State Building, Penn Station, the Seattle Great Wheel, the U.S. Great Hotel in San Diego, the Alamo in San Antonio, San Francisco City Hall, Grace Cathedral, Playhouse Square in Cleveland, the Davis Building in Dallas and of course the White House.
Everyday products like the Snickers candy bar and a box of Tide detergent got wrapped in special rainbow packaging to celebrate the big win at the court.
Dr. Paul Kengor, professor of political science at Grove City College and author of the book “Takedown: From Communists to Progressives, How the Left has Sabotaged Family and Marriage,” said in an exclusive interview with WND’s Michael Thompson that the LGBT movement has showed signs of being adopted by corporate America, with its slick marketing logos, its clever slogan, “Love is Love,” and the co-opting of the rainbow colors.
Like all good marketing ploys, the LGBT strategy is to appeal to the emotions rather than sound logic.
“It’s a brilliant idea. I mean, this is how you win campaigns like this, by coming up with the right slogans,” Kengor said. “In fact that’s something that corporate America understands really well. And this idea that love wins, and who are you to deny people who love each other the right to marry, that held sway with an awful lot of Americans. It’s a very flawed premise. Because if you’re arguing that love wins and that’s how you define marriage, then that’s going to create all sorts of problems with marriage that not even the left would support, or at least not all same-sex marriage advocates would support. For example, if love defines marriage, you could use that same argument for polygamous marriage… consenting adults, it could be plural, why stop at two, it could be three.”
Watch the full interview with Paul Kengor.
He said some executives inside these corporations are no doubt sympathetic to the LGBT cause. But others are merely intimidated by the power of the LGBT lobby, which has the corporate media ready and willing to "shame" them if they don't play along.
"You have to wonder, why are these companies doing this? I really can't give you an honest answer, and I think that in part it's because obviously some of the companies, some of the people support this but I think too it's because they're probably reacting to threats, threats of boycott, intimidation and if I was on the left and I supported same-sex marriage I wouldn't want the support of people who are forced to support me, because that's inauthentic, but I think there is probably a lot of that going on."
'Gay is the new black'
Another Christian scholar who has investigated the corporate ties to the LGBT movement is Michael Brown, who holds a Ph.D from New York University in Near Eastern Languages and Literature and is the author of more than 25 books including his newest, "Outlasting the Gay Revolution: Where Homosexual Activism is Really Going and How to Turn the Tide."
"Although some companies fear the backlash of upsetting LGBT groups, I believe most really believe it's the right thing to do, having drunk the Kool-Aid of 'gay is the new black,' and with so many well-placed LGBT employees, they believe pragmatically, it's the best thing to do," Brown told WND. "In the end, however, it will result in trumping the freedoms of the majority to cater to the desires of the minority."
In his book, Brown writes:
"Corporate America will embrace every aspect of non-heterosexuality (including bisexuality, transgender, and beyond) – calling for the dismissal of those who refuse to follow suit. And religious groups will no longer be allowed to view homosexual practice as immoral, branding such opposition as 'hate speech.'"
'A fundamental transformation'
Kengor said the corporate elite have definitely switched sides, opting to join President Obama and the government, which they see as the winning team.
"This is a fundamental transformation," he said. "That's what it is.
"Barack Obama talked about fundamentally transforming America and in the six, seven years since he said that, that's exactly what we've gotten. Not an economic transformation, not a transformation of class or anything like that, but a fundamental transformation of the culture and especially in sexual gender issues."
Kengor quotes David Axelrod, one of Obama's closest advisers, saying that Obama supported same-sex marriage back in 1996 as a state senator in Illinois. But he had to conceal those views to gain the votes of black Americans.
Brown encourages believers to stand in resistance to these changes, to stand in love and not hate, and to realize this will be a multi-generational battle.
In his book Brown offers the words of Episcopal Seminarian William Frey, who said, "One of the most attractive features of the early Christian communities was their radical sexual ethic and their deep commitment to family values. These things drew many people to them who were disillusioned by the promiscuous excesses of what proved to be a declining culture."
Credit to WNDRead more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/07/major-u-s-companies-push-sweeping-gay-rights-bill/#Te1vy2HftWJD40rl.99
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