"America's shift in attitude toward gays", 24 Aug 2015

In the beginning, it was about money as much as rights. Long before America started rapidly changing its mind about gays, corporate America set the stage....[B]usiness started thinking in the last decade that it was in its best interest to treat gays the same as straights...Marriott International...founded by Mormon John Willard Marriott....[W]orried about losing highly trained employees to competitors...[it] decided to start providing health benefits for partners of gay and lesbian employees...When Arizona's Legislature passed a state law that would have allowed businesses asserting religious objections to refuse service to same-sex couples, Apple, American Airlines and many other companies threatened to withdraw investment from the state. Their arguments persuaded Republican Gov. Jan Brewer to veto the law in February...In 2002, 61 per cent of Fortune 500 companies provided explicit non-discrimination protection on the basis of sexual orientation. This year, it's 91 per cent...[Also refers to Berkshire Hathaway, Chevron, Delta Air Lines, ExxonMobil, General Motors]