|
The
Fortune 500 are giving Virginia better economic
development signals than the Family Foundation.
Eighty- five percent of Fortune 500 companies now
ban discrimination in the workplace based on sexual
orientation. Diversity, inclusion, rights, choices
and freedoms for everyone -- the kinds of things
Virginia pioneered for the world in its Bill of
Rights -- turn out to be good for business, good for
employees, good for customers and good for
consumers. That makes a "No" vote on
Ballot Question #1 on November 7 a critical business
investment in Virginia’s future.
Forbes.com
named Virginia the best state in the nation for
business earlier this year, taking special note in
the process of the Commonwealth’s "fair and
business-friendly regulatory environment." That
makes the dramatic new government regulation of no
"legal status for relationships of unmarried
individuals" introduced in Ballot Question #1 a
direct attack on Virginia’s competitiveness. And
if you are single in Virginia, a "No" vote
on November 7 may help save your job, your benefits
and your quality of life in the decades ahead.
Virginia
businesses and business groups, frankly, didn’t
pay much attention to General Assembly action the
last two years to put the question on the ballot.
Many still aren’t. After all, the first sentence
refers to marriage being between one man and one
woman, something that already is the law in the
Commonwealth. Now businesses are discovering the
second and third sentences on the ballot that
question the legal status of every unmarried
Virginian and the agreements, benefits and contracts
each may have. They are discovering that the
amendment could turn the Bill of Rights into a Bill
of Restrictions.
"How
did this nonsense ever get on the ballot?" was
the question of one Northern Virginia business group
executive committee member reading the ballot
question for the first time in September.
Part
of the reason is that business didn’t pay
attention to it. "Virginia, cradle of liberty
and constitutional rights adopts
discrimination."
How
is that for an attractive headline for Fortune 500
business executives considering expansion and
relocation plans in Virginia? Our competitor states
will make sure the world sees that headline if
Ballot Question #1 passes.
"Unmarried
couples face difficulties in making medical
decisions after Williamsburg accident." How is
that for a headline to help publicize the
Commonwealth’s celebrations next year? You will
read articles about these kinds of unintended
consequences if Ballot Question #1 passes.
"Virginia
is for Lovers (Unmarried Individuals May Not Intend
to Approximate the Design, Quality, Significance, or
Effects of Marriage)." How is that for a new
bumper sticker and ad campaign guaranteed to boost
Virginia tourism? Just because we don’t produce it
doesn’t mean someone else won’t.
If
the South has learned anything in the last 50 years
it is that discrimination is not an economic
development tool. Modern, enlightened business, in
fact, leads by organizing around one key function
– attracting and retaining the best, most
creative, innovative people – the ones who could
live, work and succeed anywhere. Business again is
out ahead of the law. Although 85 percent of Fortune
500 companies ban discrimination based on sexual
orientation, only a third of the states do. Virginia
pointedly does not.
But
it is clear that businesses rely on the same
freedoms to define and negotiate agreements and
contracts on their own terms that will be
compromised by Virginia Ballot Question #1. What
agreements and contracts will Virginia go after
next? Businesses understand the need to avoid the
legal questions and endless challenges ahead if the
legal status of unmarried employees and their
benefits that are extended and managed through the
workplace -- health, dental, dependent coverage,
COBRA, retirement, family and medical leave,
bereavement leave, supplemental life insurance --
are thrown into legal limbo.
Proponents
of Ballot Question #1, such as the rigid and
regulatory-minded busybodies at the Family
Foundation, claim only the best of intentions. But
as U.S. Senator Daniel Webster warned in the early
decades of the Republic, "Good intentions will
always be pleaded for every assumption of authority.
It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution
was made to guard the people against the dangers of
good intentions." Ballot Question #1 contains
exactly the kind of restrictions unmarried
Virginians and the companies they work for should be
protected against.
Not
convinced there are problems ahead? Substitute
"divorce" for "marriage" as the
subject of discussion and the dangers of good
intentions are clear. Some religions still oppose or
do not recognize divorce. Making marriage work is a
good intention. That doesn’t mean a ban on divorce
can be written into Virginia’s constitution
without severe consequences for businesses and
communities, as well as individuals. Any Virginian
can grasp quickly the chaos in the workplace and
lawsuits ahead if Virginia suddenly adopted a
constitutional amendment that did not recognize a
legal status for divorce or any other agreement that
"assigned the rights, benefits, obligations,
qualities, or effects" of divorce.
Fortunately,
Virginia business executives, businesses and
business groups are beginning to grasp that their
future successes rely on the same rights and
freedoms that Virginia Ballot Question #1 would take
away. Business groups from the Geater Falls Church
Chamber of Commerce to the Retail Alliance of
Norfolk have joined faith, community and other
groups in the Commonwealth Coalition’s "VoteNoVa.Org"
campaign. Business finally is beginning to raise the
questions that could lead Virginians to a "Just
Say No" answer.
What
could be the best answer to such proposals was
suggested a couple of years ago by humorist and
columnist Gene Weingarten when the whole
"marriage amendment" question was being
run up and down the federal flagpole. The Weingarten
amendment would read, "It shall be unlawful to
use the Constitution as a plaything for the
politically self-righteous. Violators should all go
to Hell."
A
Weingarten amendment on the Virginia ballot won’t
happen, of course, but that makes a simple
"No" on Virginia Ballot Question #1 on
November 7th a good answer to the real question:
Will the Commonwealth remain fair, business-friendly
and competitive or will it step backwards toward
discrimination, rigidity and regulation?
--
October 9, 2006
|
