Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2019-06-24)

◼ BUSINESS Bloomberg Businessweek June 24, 2019

17

SuchmainstreamingofLGBTQproducts,char-
acters,andculturewouldhavebeenunthinkable
22 yearsago,whenDeGenerespubliclycameout.
Backthen,beinggayalmostkilledhercareer.
DeGenereshadspentthefirstfewdecadesof
herlifepretendingtobesomeoneshewasn’t.Her
stand-uprarelyincludedjokesaboutdatingorrela-
tionships,asif shewereavoidingtheissue.That
changedinApril1997,whenshecameoutinan
interviewwithTimemagazine,whichputheronits
coveralongwiththeheadline“Yep,I’mGay.” That
month 42 millionpeoplewatchedhercharacter
comeoutonhersitcom,Ellen. Theepisode—with
OprahWinfreyguest-starringashertherapist—was
funny,well-received by critics, and enthusiastically
celebrated by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgen-
der fans. Advertisers felt differently.
“Everybody warned me. My publicist, my man-
ager, my agent. Everybody making money off me
said, ‘Don’t do it,’ ” DeGeneres said in her Netflix
special. The blowback hit her fast and strong.
Evangelical pastor Jerry Falwell called her “Ellen
DeGenerate.” A bomb scare, which cleared the TV
studio shortly after the episode’s taping, was the
first of many threats against her. Advertisers soon
backed out. “We don’t think it is a smart business
decision to be advertising in an environment that
is so polarized,” a spokeswoman for Chrysler told
the New York Times, explaining the carmaker’s deci-
sion to pull commercials from the show.
One Ellen episode was even slapped with a paren-
tal advisory warning after her character shared a pla-
tonic kiss with a woman. Soon after, ABC canceled
the show, and the job offers stopped coming. “If I’d
been fully aware of all the consequences—that the
public was going to hate me and the press was going
to attack me, that I was going to lose a lot of people—
maybe I wouldn’t have done it,” she told writer Eric
Marcus in early 2001, when she was still struggling to
get back on TV. “But I didn’t feel like I had a choice.”
DeGeneres’s rare act of honesty couldn’t change
the fact that the 1990s were a bleak time for the
LGBTQ community. AIDS was killing thousands,
primarily gay men. In 1996, President Bill Clinton
signed the Defense of Marriage Act, banning federal
recognition of same-sex marriages. Two years later,
a gay student, Matthew Shepard, was tortured and
killed in Laramie, Wyo. DeGeneres spoke at a vigil
for Shepard held on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in
October 1998. “This is what I was trying to stop,” she
said, in tears. “This is exactly why I did what I did.”
At the time, no company better represented the
cultural climate DeGeneres was hoping to change
than Walmart, the multibillion-dollar enterprise
co-founded by Sam Walton, who taught Sunday

school at his Presbyterian church and preached

a Christianity-laced corporate gospel of service,

respect, and sacrifice.

“If you want to reach the Christian popula-

tion on Sunday, you do it from the church pulpit,”

Ralph Reed, the architect of the politically power-

ful Christian Coalition, once said. “But if you want

to reach them on Saturday, do it at Walmart.”

In the 1990s the company refused to sell

albums that contained swear words; even John

Mellencamp’s heartland rock was censored. Then

in 2001 female employees accused Walmart of deny-

ing them promotions and equal pay in a litigation

campaignthatevolvedintoa class-actionlawsuit.

(In 2011 theU.S.SupremeCourtruledthatthethen

1.5million-women-strong group couldn’t be consid-

ered a class; individual lawsuits have since been filed

and are ongoing.) In sworn statements, women at

Walmart said they endured comments such as “God

made Adam first, so women would always be sec-

ond to men.” A spokesman for Walmart says the

allegations “are not representative of the positive

DATA:KANTAR;COMMUNITYMARKETINGINC.

More Businesses Fly Rainbow Flags

Share of LGBTQ and straight respondents who shopped at these

retailersin thepastyear

experiences millions of women have had working at

Walmart” and it will defend itself against the claims.

Walmart’s revenue and profit soared, but by the

mid-2000s the company was grappling with with-

ering criticism of its business and labor practices.

It also wanted to break into urban markets such as

New York City and Chicago, where social attitudes

are more liberal. So, Walmart changed. In 2006

it plunged head-first into LGBTQ activism by

Respondentswhofeelfavorablyaboutthesetermsorimages

20 40 60 80%

LGBTQ

LGBT

Rainbow graphic

Queer

Gay & lesbian

community

●Boomers ●GenerationX ● Millennials

LGBTQrespondents

who say companies that

support LGBTQ equality

will get more of their

businessthisyear

76%

Agree

Neutral Disagree

Costco Best Buy CVS Macy’s Target Amazon Walmart Lowe’s

80%

40

0

◼ LGBTQ consumers ◼ Straight consumers