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Supreme Court hearing from unexpected champion of same-sex marriage: Corporate America

 
Published April 16, 2015

WASHINGTON — When the Supreme Court this month hears arguments over whether gay and lesbian couples can marry in every state, one audience will be paying especially close attention: American businesses, which say they spend more than $1 billion a year navigating the nation's complex patchwork of same-sex marriage laws.

In a friend-of-the-court brief filed last month, 379 of the country's best-known businesses — from Apple and Amazon to General Electric and Disney — urged justices to strike down same-sex marriage bans and provide every member of their workforce "equal dignity."

The brief marked corporate America's latest risky reversal from its traditional playbook of dodging thorny national debates, and follows a series of high-profile business protests of controversial "religious freedom" laws in Indiana and Arkansas.

But companies say they increasingly see marriage equality not just as one of this generation's defining social-rights battles, but as a critical business issue, the conclusion of which could dramatically change how they recruit, manage and retain nationwide employees.

"Five years ago, you wouldn't have seen nearly as many companies feeling comfortable — and not just comfortable, but feeling it's imperative — to speak up about this issue," said Todd Sears, a former investment banker who founded Out Leadership, a business advisory firm.

"The economics are definitely a driver, but it's also about that personal connection," Sears said. "When you create second-class citizens, it forces companies to create second-class employees."

More than 70 percent of Americans live in one of the 37 states, plus the District of Columbia, where same-sex marriages are legal. But in states where those unions are banned, corporate offices say they struggle to manage shifting rules on tax policies, employee benefits and other administrative intricacies governing same-sex partners and their families.

They also cut down on companies' internal options, limiting how they can redeploy workers, open new offices or pursue other strategies. Sears offered one example: "Say your star employee's married to his partner in New York and you want to move him to Georgia, where not only is it legal to fire him if he's gay and his marriage isn't recognized by the state, but you're potentially putting him in a hostile situation."

Adding to the frustration, the companies argued, was that inconsistent policies kept them on the wrong side of their customers' feelings on this issue. About 60 percent of Americans now support same-sex marriage, recent polls show.