An accurate picture of the LGBTQ rights movement’s achievements is incomplete without this surprising history of how corporate America joined the cause. Legal scholar Carlos Ball tells the overlooked story of how LGBTQ activism aimed at corporations since the Stonewall riots helped turn them from enterprises either indifferent to or openly hostile toward sexual minorities and transgender individuals into reliable and powerful allies of the movement for queer equality. As a result of street protests and boycotts during the 1970s, AIDS activism directed at pharmaceutical companies in the 1980s, and the push for corporate nondiscrimination policies and domestic partnership benefits in the 1990s, LGBTQ activism changed big business’s understanding and treatment of the queer community. By the 2000s, corporations were frequently and vigorously promoting LGBTQ equality, both within their walls and in the public sphere. Large companies such as American Airlines, Apple, Google, Marriott, and Walmart have been crucial allies in promoting marriage equality and opposing anti-LGBTQ regulations such as transgender bathroom laws. At a time when the LGBTQ movement is facing considerable political backlash, The Queering of Corporate America complicates the narrative of corporate conservatism and provides insights into the future legal, political, and cultural implications of this unexpected relationship.

This is the Conclusion to my book The Queering of Corporate America (Beacon Press, 2019). The book explains why and how big businesses in the US have become crucial political allies of the LGBTQ rights movement. In doing so, it explores how LGBTQ activism aimed at corporations has contributed to equality gains for sexual minorities and transgender individuals from the 1970s until today. The Conclusion explores how corporate activism on behalf of LGBTQ equality complicates the post-Citizens United narratives of both the right and the left. As traditional conservatives have learned from contemporary political disputes over issues such as the intersection of marriage equality and religious freedom, it is not easy -- indeed, it is frequently impossible -- for activists (regardless of their ideologies, beliefs, or objectives) to prevail in important public policy debates in the face of committed corporate opposition. This might suggest to some conservative supporters of Citizens United that placing reasonable limits on the ability of for-profit corporations to spend money to influence the outcome of elections may promote rather than undermine democracy. At the same time, several of this century's LGBTQ rights debates have shown those on the left that corporate priorities, power, and influence can sometimes be deployed in ways that advance social change and reforms by, for example, helping expand opportunities and promote equality. Depending on the issue and circumstances, corporations can sometimes be allies of those who are fighting for a more fair, just, safe, and equal society. This might suggest to some on the left that it may be inappropriate to limit the free speech rights of corporations to participate in public policy debates.

An accurate picture of the LGBTQ rights movement’s achievements is incomplete without this surprising history of how corporate America joined the cause. Legal scholar Carlos Ball tells the overlooked story of how LGBTQ activism aimed at corporations since the Stonewall riots helped turn them from enterprises either indifferent to or openly hostile toward sexual minorities and transgender individuals into reliable and powerful allies of the movement for queer equality. As a result of street protests and boycotts during the 1970s, AIDS activism directed at pharmaceutical companies in the 1980s, and the push for corporate nondiscrimination policies and domestic partnership benefits in the 1990s, LGBTQ activism changed big business’s understanding and treatment of the queer community. By the 2000s, corporations were frequently and vigorously promoting LGBTQ equality, both within their walls and in the public sphere. Large companies such as American Airlines, Apple, Google, Marriott, and Walmart have been crucial allies in promoting marriage equality and opposing anti-LGBTQ regulations such as transgender bathroom laws. At a time when the LGBTQ movement is facing considerable political backlash, The Queering of Corporate America complicates the narrative of corporate conservatism and provides insights into the future legal, political, and cultural implications of this unexpected relationship.

LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FINALIST A transgender reporter's "powerful, profoundly moving" narrative tour through the surprisingly vibrant queer communities sprouting up in red states (New York Times Book Review), offering a vision of a stronger, more humane America. Ten years ago, Samantha Allen was a suit-and-tie-wearing Mormon missionary. Now she's a GLAAD Award-winning journalist happily married to another woman. A lot in her life has changed, but what hasn't changed is her deep love of Red State America, and of queer people who stay in so-called "flyover country" rather than moving to the liberal coasts. In Real Queer America, Allen takes us on a cross-country road-trip stretching all the way from Provo, Utah to the Rio Grande Valley to the Bible Belt to the Deep South. Her motto for the trip: "Something gay every day." Making pit stops at drag shows, political rallies, and hubs of queer life across the heartland, she introduces us to scores of extraordinary LGBT people working for change, from the first openly transgender mayor in Texas history to the manager of the only queer night club in Bloomington, Indiana, and many more. Capturing profound cultural shifts underway in unexpected places and revealing a national network of chosen family fighting for a better world, Real Queer America is a treasure trove of uplifting stories and a much-needed source of hope and inspiration in these divided times.

The interconnected constructions of race and sexuality at the turn of the century.

Controversial journalist and activist Michelangelo Signorile assess that if is the hidden identities--the "closeted" lives--of homosexuals that prevent their acceptance in American society. In "A Queer Manifesto," he issues a call-to-arms that refuses to let the closet, and the suffering it causes, endure.

This immersive, accessible and thought-provoking book takes the reader on a journey to explore the pros and cons, the myths and realities of life for LGBTQ+ people today. Shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize 2020 ‘Eloquent, empathetic and passionate, this book will not just resonate with a new generation of queer people, but with all those who seek to be their allies. A brilliant book.’ - Owen Jones, author of The Establishment Today, the options and freedoms on offer to LGBTQ+ people living in the West are greater than ever before. But is same-sex marriage, improved media visibility and corporate endorsement all it’s cracked up to be? At what cost does this acceptance come? And who is getting left behind, particularly in parts of the world where LGBTQ+ rights aren’t so advanced? Combining intrepid journalism with her own personal experience, in Queer Intentions, Amelia Abraham searches for the answers to these urgent challenges, as well as the broader question of what it means to be queer right now. With curiosity, good humour and disarming openness, Amelia takes the reader on a thought-provoking and entertaining journey. Join her as she cries at the first same-sex marriage in Britain, loses herself in the world’s biggest drag convention in L.A., marches at Pride parades across Europe, visits both a transgender model agency and the Anti-Violence Project in New York to understand the extremes of trans life today, parties in the clubs of Turkey’s underground LGBTQ+ scene, and meets a genderless family in progressive Stockholm. 'A landmark exploration into what it means to be queer today' – DAZED