Why the Greenville Gay Community is important to business
150 businesses who say discrimination won’t be tolerated.
(*Note: An earlier version of this blog incorrectly listed Greenville city council as the owner of the 1996 resolution opposing the gay community. WebDig apologizes for the error.)
Greenville county* council passed a resolution in 1996 stating “lifestyles advocated by the gay community should not be endorsed by government policy makers, because they are incompatible with the standards to which this community subscribes.” Stop the bullshit before the below businesses punish the Upstate and all of South Carolina for being a discriminatory state!
“Put simply, HB 2 is not a bill that reflects the values of our companies.”
Businesses threaten to punish Greenville, SC for being anti-gay:
Karen Appleton, Senior Vice President, Box James Avery, CEO, Adzerk Brandee Barker, Cofounder, The Pramana Collective Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce Chip Bergh, President and CEO, Levi Strauss & Co. Michael Birch, Founder, Blab Ed Black, President and CEO, Computer & Communications Industry Association Lloyd C. Blankfein, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Goldman Sachs Group Nathan Blecharczyk, Cofounder and CTO, Airbnb Steven R. Boal, CEO, Quotient Technology Inc. Ron Boire, CEO, Barnes and Noble Lorna Borenstein, CEO, Grokker Brad Brinegar, Chairman and CEO, McKinney Michael Bronner, President, Dr. Bronner’s Craig Bromley, President, John Hancock Financial John Bryant, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Kellogg Company Wes Bush, Chairman, CEO and President of Northrop Grumman Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, co-CEOs, Atlassian Lloyd Carney, CEO, Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. Marc Casper, President and CEO, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. Safra Catz, CEO, Oracle Brian Chesky, CEO, Airbnb Emanuel Chirico, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, PVH Corp. Ron Conway, Founder and Co-Managing Partner, SV Angel Tim Cook, CEO, Apple Roger W. Crandall, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Paul T. Dacier, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, EMC Corporation Bracken P. Darrell, CEO, Logitech Dean Debnam, Chairman and CEO, Workplace Options Mike DeFrino, Chief Executive Officer, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants Bill Demchak, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. Alex Dimitrief, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, GE Jack Dorsey, CEO, Square and Twitter Sandy Douglas, Executive Vice President & President, Coca-Cola North America, The Coca-Cola Company David Ebersman, Cofounder and CEO, Lyra Health Randy Fiser, CEO, American Society of Interior Designers Jared Fliesler, General Partner, Matrix Partners Vince Forlenza, Chairman, CEO and President, BD Mark Gainey, CEO, Strava Inc. Joe Gebbia, Cofounder and Chief Product Officer, Airbnb Jason Goldberg, CEO, Pepo Kristen Koh Goldstein, CEO, BackOps Mitchell Gold, co-founder and chair-man, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams John H. Graham IV, President and CEO, American Society of Association Executives Peter T. Grauer, Chairman, Bloomberg L.P. Logan Green, CEO, Lyft Mike Gregoire, CEO, CA Technologies Paul Graham, Founder, Y Combinator David Hassell, CEO, 15Five Charles H. Hill III, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Human Resources, Pfizer Inc. Reid Hoffman, Chairman, LinkedIn Robert Hohman, Cofounder & CEO, Glassdoor Mark Hoplamazian, President and CEO, Hyatt Hotels Corporation Drew Houston, CEO, Dropbox William H. Howle, President of U.S. Retail Banking Group, Citibank Steve Huffman, CEO, Reddit Chad Hurley, Cofounder, YouTube Dave Imre, Partner and CEO, IMRE Dev Ittycheria, President & CEO, MongoDB Laurene Powell Jobs, President, Emerson Collective Michael O. Johnson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Herbalife Cecily Joseph, VP Corporate Responsibility and Chief Diversity Officer, Symantec Corporation Steve Joyce, CEO, Choice Hotels International Travis Kalanick, CEO, Uber David Karp, Founder and CEO, Tumblr Travis Katz, Founder and CEO, Gogobot Alan King, President and COO, Workplace Options Dave King, CEO, LabCorp. David Kohler, President & CEO, Kohler Co. Brian Krzanich, CEO, Intel Joshua Kushner, Managing Partner, Thrive Capital Michael W. Lamach, Chairman and CEO, Ingersoll-Rand plc William P. Lauder, Executive Chairman, The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. Jeff Lawson, Founder, CEO and Chairman, Twilio Max Levchin, CEO, Affirm Dion Lim, CEO, NextLesson Frank Longobardi, CEO, CohnReznick LLP Shan-lyn Ma, CEO, Zola Elie Maalouf, Chief Executive Officer, The Americas, InterContinental Hotels Group Vishal Makhijani, COO, Udacity Tom Mangas, CEO, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Bill Maris, CEO, Google Ventures Marissa Mayer, President and CEO, Yahoo Melody McCloskey, CEO, StyleSeat Douglas Merrill, CEO, Zestfinance Dyke Messinger, President and CEO, Power Curbers Inc. Steve Mollenkopf, CEO, Qualcomm Inc. Brian Moynihan, CEO, Bank of America Hari Nair, Vice President and General Manager, Orbitz.com & CheapTickets.com Christopher J. Nassetta, President & Chief Executive Officer, Hilton Worldwide Michael Natenshon, CEO, Marine Layer Alexi G. Nazem, Cofounder and CEO, Nomad Health Alexis Ohanian, Cofounder, Reddit Laurie J. Olson, EVP, Strategy, Portfolio and Commercial Operations, Pfizer Inc. Bob Page, Founder and CEO, Replacements, Ltd. Doug Parker, Chairman and CEO, American Airlines Mark Pearson, CEO, AXA Financial Inc. Mike Pedersen, CEO and President, TD Bank, N.A. Michelle Peluso, Strategic Advisor and former CEO, Gilt Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google Mark Pincus, Founder and Executive Chairman, Zynga Hosain Rahman, CEO, Jawbone Bill Ready, CEO, Braintree Evan Reece, CEO, Liftopia Stan Reiss, General Partner, Matrix Partners John Replogle, CEO, Seventh Generation Walter Robb, co-CEO, Whole Foods Market Chuck Robbins, CEO, Cisco Systems Virginia M. Rometty, Chairman, President and CEO, IBM Corporation Dan Rosensweig, CEO, Chegg Kevin P. Ryan, Founder and Chairman, Alleycorp Bijan Sabet, General Partner, Spark Capital Brian Samelson, CEO & President, eMaint Enterprises, LLC Julie Samuels, President, Engine George A. Scangos, PhD, CEO, Biogen Charles W. Scharf, Chief Executive Officer, Visa Inc. Paula Schneider, CEO, American Apparel Steve Schoch, CEO, Miramax Dan Schulman, President and CEO, PayPal Howard Schultz, Chairman and CEO, Starbucks Adam Shankman, Director and Producer Gary Shapiro, President and CEO, Consumer Technology Association David A. Shaywitz, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer, DNAnexus Behshad Sheldon, President and CEO, Braeburn Pharmaceuticals Ben Silbermann, CEO, Pinterest Brad Smith, President and Chief Legal Officer, Microsoft Arne Sorenson, President and CEO, Marriott International David Spector, Cofounder, ThirdLove Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO, Yelp Jerry Stritzke, President and CEO, REI John G. Stumpf, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Wells Fargo & Company Julie Sweet, Group Chief Executive North America, Accenture Christopher J. Swift, Chairman and CEO, The Hartford Bret Taylor, CEO, Quip Todd Thibodeaux, CEO, CompTIA Brian Tippens, Vice President, Chief Diversity Officer, Hewlett Packard Enterprise David Tisch, Managing Partner, BoxGroup Nirav Tolia, Cofounder and CEO, Nextdoor Kevin A. Trapani, President and CEO, The Redwood Groups Mark Trudeau, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals Ken Wasch, President, Software & Information Industry Association Casey Wasserman, Chairman and CEO of Wasserman & President and CEO of the Wasserman Foundation Bob & Harvey Weinstein, Co-Founders and Co-Chairmen, The Weinstein Company Devin Wenig, CEO, eBay Tim Westergren, Founder and CEO, Pandora Media, Inc. Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO, Facebook
So far, Greenville’s wise new blood in county* council has sat back and ignored the recent segregationists’ bandwagon that seeks to make the LGBT community second-class citizens by implementing HB2 (The Bathroom Bill). Could it be that Greenville’s political and business leaders heard about Bruce Springsteen’s cancellation of a concert in North Carolina last week or PayPal’s withdrawal of a business plan in Charlotte at the same time?
Responding to the idiocy of Spartanburg’s Senator Lee Bright who introduced a bill on South Carolina’s Senate Floor (See full text of bill S. 1203) Gov. Nikki Haley gave a press conference about how nobody in South Carolina has reported their civil liberties being violated. “The transgender bill is unnecessary,” Haley finished.
Hooray for Governor Haley who stands against making stupid resolutions against the Greenville Gay Community!
Why this is not a Christian issue anymore
In years past, the Christian community stood united against homosexuality and other perceived non-traditional lifestyles such as integration. However, times have changed and Christians in Greenville, SC and throughout the country have progressed to understand homosexuality is a reality and that Jesus Christ loves all His people.First Baptist Church in Greenville, S.C., approved an affirmation that: “In all facets of the life and ministry of our church, including but not limited to membership, baptism, ordination, marriage, teaching and committee/organizational leadership, First Baptist, Greenville, will not discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity.”Times have changed and our progressive society understands our lifestyles are what make people unique and accepting.
Be careful when you disagree with gay friendly companies who are looking at Greenville to establish new business.
Not only do those who run web design companies in Greenville support the LGBT community, but huge companies like PayPal avoid haters as was demonstrated in Charlotte earlier this month.PayPal Withdraws Plan for Charlotte Expansion.
“Two weeks ago, PayPal announced plans to open a new global operations center in Charlotte and employ over 400 people in skilled jobs. In the short time since then, legislation has been abruptly enacted by the State of North Carolina that invalidates protections of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender citizens and denies these members of our community equal rights under the law.
The new law perpetuates discrimination and it violates the values and principles that are at the core of PayPal’s mission and culture. As a result, PayPal will not move forward with our planned expansion into Charlotte.”
People do not accept the role of second-class citizen, says Kittredge McFadden who blogged many of our disgruntled attitudes toward a county* council who has both shown amazing forsight and community planning wisdom in attracting new business and also demonstrated acumen in developing a marvelous infrastructure of buses, roads and bike paths – but who also has a history of enforcing draconian Old Testament dogma.
The Greenville gay community may be in the cross-hairs of ideologues who don’t get it, but they’re also quite impervious to haters. Here’s what Ms. McFadden had to say about the Greenville gay community scene:
In Greenville County, S.C., there exists three self-proclaimed gay bars, one gay bookstore, several gay-owned and operated businesses and international corporations that understand the importance of including sexual orientation in their non-discrimination policies. In fact, some of the larger corporations (Fluor, Daniel, Michelin) include domestic partnership benefits.The Greenville gay community has historically sat back and let the old-timers have their way with passing draconian resolution that seek to hurt their way of life. But more and more businesses are socially active and will pressure cities and states to do the right thing.
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