Victory: Bank of America Declares Opposition to Anti-LGBT Constitutional Amendment in North Carolina
Great news from Rev. James Leach, a strong local advocate in North Carolina against Amendment One. The amendment will on the May ballot and, if passed, would ban marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships between same-gender couples.
In partnership with local LGBT advocate organizations, Standing on the Side of Love created a Change.org petition last year urging business leaders in North Carolina, including Bank of America, to come out against the amendment. Almost 3,000 of you signed this petition.
In this recent video address, Bank of America Executive Cathy Bessant announced the company’s opposition to Amendment One. “Amendment One is a direct challenge to our ability to compete nationally for jobs and economic growth,” she said. “Large corporations hate this kind of controversy.”
“I am heartened that, at last, a high level Bank of America executive is using her voice and influence to join those of us who know that this amendment is not only inconsistent with our shared values of compassion, equality and justice, but is also bad for business in our state,” Rev. Leach told us.
This is a great victory, but Bank of America could still do more. According to an article in Stateline, business plays a key role in garnering support for LGBT equality measures. For example, the support of high-profile corporations such as Nike and Microsoft were crucial in the fight for marriage equality in Washington State. In North Carolina, employees of the locally-based VF Corporation, the Fortune 500 parent company of several big-name clothing brands like The North Face and Lee, have been extremely critical of Amendment One. In the words of Stephen Dull, VF’s vice president for strategy and innovation, “If you’re sending a signal to the world that you’re biased, it doesn’t just scare away gay people, it scares away everyone.”
We hope that Bank of America will speak out even more publicly against this measure and any other initiatives designed to infringe on the rights of LGBT people.
Thanks to all of you who signed our Bank of America petition for lending your voice to this effort for justice and dignity. Please share this video, and visit http://www.protectallncfamilies.org for more opportunities to help defeat Amendment One.
This is awesome news!!
If you read follow-up in Bloomburg you will see that Bank of America is NOT taking a position on Amendment 1, Ms. Bessant is speaking individually and not for Bank of America.