Commentary

Standing Up For Everyone

I’m not much for political debate and rarely find it has a place in business, especially in the travel and hospitality industry where our focus has always been on serving everyone equally well.

Unfortunately, though, there are times when the political dialogue forces your hand and begins to impact your business, regardless of what your party affiliation or beliefs may be.

The recent Religious Freedom laws being introduced in Indiana (and Arkansas) demonstrate just how significantly your business can be threatened and your reputation tarnished over actions that you have little influence or control over.

For those who have somehow missed the furor, the state of Indiana passed a Religious Freedom Restoration Act that, in effect, gave businesses in the state the right to discriminate against gay patrons under the guise of protecting the business owner’s right to practice their faith freely.

Not surprisingly, the condemnation was swift and intense. 

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The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) immediately threatened to cancel their 2017 convention in Indianapolis, which has an economic impact estimated at $8 million. And Gen Con, one of the country’s largest gaming conventions, said they would move future versions of their conference which attracts over 56,000 people and brings approximately $50 million into the state. 

Angie’s List, which is based in Indianapolis, said that it would abandon a deal it had in place to expand its headquarters. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff announced that they were immediately canceling all required travel to the state of Indiana, and even the mayor of San Francisco weighed in, saying that effective immediately all city employees would cancel their business travel to Indiana.

Perhaps Tony Award-winning actress Audra McDonald articulated the threat to all of us in travel best when she tweeted to her followers, “Some in my band are gay & we have 2 gigs in your state next month. Should we call ahead to make sure the hotel accepts us all?”

Given that the travel industry has always been one of the more inclusive industries, with a workforce including large numbers of gays, women, immigrants and other minorities that are often discriminated against, I was surprised that more travel leaders, brands and organizations didn’t step up to voice their concerns.

One who did was Arne Sorenson, president and CEO of Marriott. He spoke out publicly in a clip that was distributed on CNBC, saying, “The legislation in Indiana …  is not just pure idiocy from a business perspective — and it is that — the notion that you can tell businesses somehow that they are free to discriminate against people based on who they are is madness.” 

Also expressing their dismay were such travel companies as Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, American Airlines and Orbitz, as well as Apple, Levi Strauss, Microsoft, Wells Fargo and others, all of whom signed on in support of a statement from the Human Rights Campaign that decried this kind of discriminatory law. 

The statement made it clear that this kind of legislation is bad for business and went on to make a business case for equality, citing it as a necessary ingredient to foster talent and innovation in the workplace and a requirement for creating a welcoming place to live and thrive. It also pointed out that, “while these bills won’t alter our commitment to equality in the workplace, this legislation sends the wrong message about the states in which we operate and threatens our core corporate commitment to respect all individuals.”

Perhaps no one articulated the need to champion equality and rail against anything that might intentionally or unintentionally allow discrimination better than Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, who wrote the following in a Washington Post op-ed piece:

“Our message, to people around the country and around the world, is this: Apple is open. Open to everyone, regardless of where they come from, what they look like, how they worship or who they love. Regardless of what the law might allow in Indiana or Arkansas, we will never tolerate discrimination. 

“Men and women have fought and died fighting to protect our country’s founding principles of freedom and equality. We owe it to them, to each other and to our future to continue to fight with our words and our actions to make sure we protect those ideals. The days of segregation and discrimination marked by “Whites Only” signs on shop doors, water fountains and restrooms must remain deep in our past. We must never return to any semblance of that time. America must be a land of opportunity for everyone.

“This isn’t a political issue. It isn’t a religious issue. This is about how we treat each other as human beings. Opposing discrimination takes courage. With the lives and dignity of so many people at stake, it’s time for all of us to be courageous.”

That is a message that all of us in travel can and must embrace. And one we must constantly champion.

Window signs suddenly popping up in businesses all over Indiana address this reality most directly and succinctly, “This Business Serves Everyone.”

They are words that all of us marketing travel should steadfastly defend and communicate. 

No matter your politics.

6 comments about "Standing Up For Everyone".
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  1. Stacey Schaller from SBS Advertising, April 6, 2015 at 11:33 a.m.

    I rarely comment, but I feel compelled to answer this now.

    Honestly, this article is a "bait-and-switch" argument. The religious freedom act that Indiana has passed *in no way* suggests that we should or would be allowed to treat people as lessors. It speaks to business owners being forced to endorse a particular opinion presented by people who want to do business with them. For instance, say that a Nazi came to my print shop and demanded that I publish Nazi viewpoints on Jews. Under the religious freedom act Indiana enacted, I could say, "No." If I am renting a room in my house, and a drug addict or unmarried couple wanted to rent it, I could say, "No."

    The fact is, we discriminate every day. We discriminate when we pick the blue tie over the red. We discriminate when we take the short route to work rather than the scenic route. Discrimination is not inherently good or bad. It simply "is" because none of us can choose everything.

    And by forcing people to endorse or participate in activities who, at their religious core, believe those activities to be wrong, is just as much discrimination as allowing people to choose who they will do business with.

    Forcing a cake decorator to make a cake for a gay wedding when she cannot do so in good conscience is the same thing as forcing a Gay man to MC a "Love ONE Out" conference, demanding a Planned Parenthood executive to fund a Pro-Life rally, or forcing a black American author to write a book favoring the KKK.

    This law cuts both ways, and in the end, when we must discriminate, forcing people to go against their consciences in order to "prevent discrimination" is the wrong kind of discrimination.

    Regardless of what we believe, if we are no longer able to use our personal values as a measuring stick for the business choices we make, we are no longer a free people, and it will not be long before the people in power make all of our choices for us. And history has shown that that when the power-mongers have the right to decide what we individuals do and think, it has never worked in the favor of Gays and Lesbians.

  2. Tom Dyer from TOM DYER SALES AGENCY, April 6, 2015 at 11:58 a.m.

    The State of Indiana has created a half full glass of water. They should look at the positive side and react with creative actions. Remember what the Mayor of Duluth, Minn. did a number of years ago. The local mill and major employer of the City closed. This would cause the City to collapse. The Mayor got off his back side and went to work. He made Duluth a major convention center. He saved his City. This is another example to turn Indiana around and do something positive. Put all the jigsaw pieces together and make a whole picture . This is what the Mayor did and he had excellence results. Who knows what the final picture is but there are many pieces that can be used and should be used. Tom Dyer tomdyer@sympatico.ca

  3. Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, April 6, 2015 at 8:49 p.m.

    Homosexuality does not equate malice. Religion, on the other hand, has been the seat of malice since the first pre-historic ritual for protection by superstitious deities. For that reason(s), the first European Americans made sure that the documents to hold this country together rather than the persecutions they ran from made sure that religion had no part in the government of this country. It took a long time to get that through (still problems) the thick heads of people living here, but most of us believed we were on our way. And by the way, choosing is not the same as discriminating. All of the companies and their representatives can choose not to leave their profits on the tables of the discrimination/hate mob rule mongers.

  4. Stacey Schaller from SBS Advertising, April 6, 2015 at 10:53 p.m.

    Hello, Paula. I appreciate your comments, and you are precisely the sort of person I expressed concern about -- an intelligent person who simply has been fed the standard information filtered by the "ruling powers." The old saying is, "Knowledge is Power." When you have the right knowledge, you gain power, but when you have the wrong knowledge, you lose it. And it is in the "interests" of those trying to gain power over you to withhold knowledge from you. This is especially true of historical information. "Filtering" history to paint a particular view leaves those who are given the filtered information less powerful--and the more filtered and inaccurate the information, the less power the receiver is left with. As all information is filtered to some extent, you need to look at history as close to the source as possible. Fortunately, for our country, we can get our history "straight from the horse's mouth." I'll reference a couple of historic documents you can easily Google. The first, the Declaration of Independence, says, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The writers of the Declaration of Independence not only showed no ill will toward Faith, but referenced God (as "Creator") as the source of the rights which they were protecting. The second document, the US Constitution, states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The first members of the newly formed US Congress passed this amendment, before doing much else, to PROTECT the religious liberty of American citizens and to prevent government intrusion into matters of faith. However, it in NO WAY prohibits members of the faith community from being actively involved in the public sector. Interestingly, nearly half of the first US Congress were Christian ministers, and on Sept. 1, 1782, the Congress of the Confederacy authorized the printing of Bibles to be used in the nation's schools--nearly six years before the US Constitution was signed into law. Contrary to what we (you and I) were taught in college, the founders did not attempt to quell religion. They actually stated, in no unequivocal terms, that God was the foundation of human dignity and human rights--a totally new concept to politics of the day.

  5. Stacey Schaller from SBS Advertising, April 6, 2015 at 10:54 p.m.

    And on the matter of discrimination, according to the dictionary, discrimination is "recognition and understanding of the difference between one thing and another." You may have heard, "That man has discriminating tastes.: The statement merely means that he has a good sense of style or a penchant for delectable dining. Discrimination simply involves deciding which thing is better. We cannot avoid discrimination. When I hire, if I have ten applicants and one position to fill, I, based on some standard or another, choose which applicant I feel is better for the position. Automatically, that means I have discriminated against the remaining nine. Without hiring all ten, I cannot avoid discriminating. That is why the "legalese" at the bottom of a job application does not ban discrimination. It merely indicates that an individual will not be discriminated against as a result of irrelevant standards, like race, gender, or religious affiliation. When you call religion "malignant," you are discriminating. Are you correct to discriminate in that way? Well, that would depend on whether an objective analysis would say that your view is correct. But whether you are right in your view or you are wrong, you are discriminating. So am I. The value of this discussion hinges on whether allowing people to side with their consciences is good, or whether is is better to tell people what they are allowed to believe, then force them to follow that.

  6. Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, April 7, 2015 at 9:09 p.m.

    The creator is science from the "big bang" through now. Many were Masons, a very supertitious gang. And if they didn't recognize there was religion with various superstitions to accompany them, they wouldn't have been able to form the country and gather support and funds. They knew from experience about persecution based on religion so the mention of a creator was a wiggle. You can establish a religious building, go in and mumble as many words with as many statues and rituals as you would like. You can do the same in your own home. It is all perfectly legal and safe. You can believe what you want. Public places must be accomodating to none. How far do you think they would have gotten to accomplish what they did declaring an godless country ? 1492 was just one year of religious breeding malficence. I choose salted carmel gelato. The rest of the flavors sound delicious too.

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