PAPER ROUTE

Google, Nike, Amazon, Other Corps Support WA Marriage Equality In Full-Page Ad

A slew of  big corporations based in Washington endorsed a full-page ad supporting Referendum 74, the state’s marriage-equality initiative, in the Sunday Seattle Times.

Washington United for Marriage funded the ad —which includes endorsements from Amazon, CostCo, Google, Microsoft, Nike, Nordstrum, Starbucks, T-Mobile, Vulcan and other companies—to garner votes in the November 6 election:

As leaders who do business in Washington State, our companies and organizations strive to attract the best and the brightest talent in order to compete in a global marketplace and to reflect our communities, customers and employees’ diversity. We are endorsing Referendum 74 to uphold the state’s civil marriage equality law that allows all loving, committed couples to be married, while also protecting religious freedom.

Our state’s largest chamber of commerce, comprised of 2,200 businesses representing a regional workforce of approximately 700,000 people, has endorsed Approve Referendum 74. So have Alcoa, Amazon, Concur, EMC, Expedia, Google, Group Health, Microsoft, Nike, Nordstrom, REI, Starbucks, T-Mobile, Vulcan and more than 600 small businesses, labor organizations, congregations, and community-based organizations across the state.

Economists have projected that allowing same-sex couples to marry will add $88 million to our state’s economy before 2015.

We don’t want our employees, our customers or our friends and neighbors who are gay or lesbian to have to produce a legal document just to comfort a loved one in the hospital or to lose a partner of decades and be told that in the eyes of the government, they are considered a stranger.

We support allowing all loving, committed couples the freedom to marry because it means every employee is treated fairly, it helps our competitive business advantage and is good for our state’s economy.

It’s rare that doing good makes you money, but this one sounds like a no-brainer.

 

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