In 2016, PayPal, amultinational financial services company canceled an expansion intoNorth Carolina worth millions of dollars and with hundreds of jobs. The cancellation was in response to the state legislature’s passage of a transphobic law. The Public and Facilities Privacy and Security Act restricted transgender and nonbinary individuals from using public restrooms consistent with their gender identity. The act also overturned broader local nondiscrimination ordinances.1 PayPal’s corporate activism in support of the rights of sexual minorities and gender nonconformists reflected a half-century of activism by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activists who demanded workplace rights and benefits through their employer when cities and states refused to provide nondiscrimination protections. The majority of LGBT people had no federal protection against discrimination in employment until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled sexual orientation and gender identity are protected characteristics under Title VII of the Civil RightsAct (1964) in June 2020.2 Even after the achievement of same-sex marriage in 2015, few southern states provided workplace protections for sexual minorities. Workers across the South and Southwest could therefore be married to someone of the same sex but be fired by their homophobic boss for being gay.3 “Work and Sexuality in the Sunbelt” examines how sexual minorities reshaped the corporate workplace to provide protections in areas where federal, state, and local governments fell short. Pressure in this arena was successful to the extent that most major companies now prohibit discrimination and openly campaign for equality. Several case studies of homophobic discrimination are examined. Chapters on individual companies includingApple, Cracker Barrel, Duke University, and ExxonMobil shed light on mainstream LGBT strategies for equality within corporations as well as the extent to which victories at these companies

中文翻译：

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阳光地带的工作和性行为：1970 年至今美国南部和西南部的同性恋工作场所歧视

2016 年，跨国金融服务公司 PayPal 取消了在北卡罗来纳州的价值数百万美元和数百个工作岗位的扩张计划。取消是为了响应州立法机构通过的跨性别法律。《公共和设施隐私和安全法》限制跨性别和非二元性个体使用与其性别认同一致的公共厕所。该法案还推翻了更广泛的地方非歧视条例。 1 PayPal 支持性少数群体和性别不墨守成规者权利的企业行动反映了半个世纪以来女同性恋、男同性恋、双性恋和跨性别 (LGBT) 活动家的行动，他们要求工作场所的权利和福利当城市和州拒绝提供非歧视保护时，通过他们的雇主。在美国最高法院于 2020 年 6 月裁定性取向和性别认同是《民权法案》（1964 年）第 VII 章规定的受保护特征之前，大多数 LGBT 人群在就业方面没有受到联邦保护。2 即使在美国实现同性婚姻之后2015 年，很少有南部州为性少数群体提供工作场所保护。因此，南部和西南部的工人可能会与同性结婚，但会因为同性恋而被他们的同性恋老板解雇。 3 “阳光地带的工作和性行为”研究性少数群体如何重塑企业工作场所，以便在以下领域提供保护：联邦、州和地方政府都达不到要求。这个领域的压力是成功的，以至于大多数大公司现在都禁止歧视并公开争取平等。审查了几个恐同歧视的案例研究。包括 Apple、Cracker Barrel、杜克大学和埃克森美孚在内的个别公司的章节阐明了公司内部平等的主流 LGBT 战略以及这些公司的胜利程度