Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers
Jim Rogers, CEO of multi-billion dollar Fortune 500 company Duke Energy headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, made something of a splash when
he spoke out against North Carolina's proposed anti-gay marriage referendum Amendment One. He made the remarks at a business networking meeting, and made the case it would not be good for recruiting talent to the state and allow them to remain competitive with states like New York, Illinois and California, that do, to one degree or another, legally acknowledge same-sex relationships.
He crossed over from simply objecting into blasting the amendment when he went on to say:
"I'm old-fashioned: I believe we're all the children of God and we shouldn't have special rules for some and not for others. We have to recognize differences in people and celebrate those differences. That's just something I believe.
"And I'll go a step further - and this is going to be somewhat controversial when I say this. If this amendment passes, we're going to look back 20 years from now, or 10 years from now, and we're going to think about that amendment the same way we think about the Jim Crow laws that were passed in this state many, many years ago."
Monday night, TV station WRAL aired a half-hour documentary on the pros and cons of the amendment (you can view it here).
Rob Schofield over at The Progressive Pulse noticed a striking "lack of balance." The news team highlighted a letter signed by 75 CEOs opposing the amendment. He investigated why there wasn't a voice of balance coming out of the business community in favor of the amendment. WRAL documentary host David Crabtree explained the seeming omission:
“We tried to find a CEO who supports Amendment One to interview. We worked with the two lead organizations campaigning for it, the North Carolina Family Policy Council and the NC Values Coalition. They could not find a pro-Amendment CEO willing to be interviewed for this documentary.”
The pop-up grassroots site
Startups Against 1 has a lot of people chatting about the harm Amendment One will visit on the North Carolina business community. A small sampling:
Over the past 20 years, I've been fortunate to successfully lead three venture-backed startups here in North Carolina — and I did it by finding the best talent available and giving them the freedom to prove themselves. Amendment One will seriously impact the state's ability to attract and retain the kind of talent emerging companies need. North Carolina needs to welcome, nurture and celebrate talent...not limit, judge and discourage. —Michael Doernberg CEO and Co-founder ReverbNation
The proposed amendment creates unnecessary obstacles for businesses that want to recruit talent to work in North Carolina. It creates an unwelcome business climate at a time when our state desperately needs jobs and investment.—Eric Boggs Founder & CEO Argyle Social
Amendment One is a dramatic over-reach. Constitutional Amendments have always been about granting rights, not taking them away. And this amendment reaches far beyond its intended targets. It hurts families, it hurts kids, and it hurts our community. It is bad for business, and bad for NC.—Justin Gehtland Co-founder and Chairman Relevance
North Carolina is putting forth an incredible amount of effort and resources towards attracting top level talent and fueling startup growth. That is why we chose to build our company here. Amendment One would be a move in the exact opposite direction and could sadly unravel many of those efforts.—Anil Chawla CEO ArchiveSocial
There are lots, lots more at
Startups Against 1, which is still soliciting more companies to add to the list.
We turn the floor over to North Carolina Family Policy Council and the NC Values Coalition. Lots of people are saying Amendment One will hurt North Carolina's economic growth.
Got anything to say about that?
What you can do to help defeat Amendment One:
- Contribute to the campaign on ActBlue so they have the resources they need to get our message out.
- Sign up for a Courageous Conversation about Amendment One with someone you know in NC.
- Follow the campaign on Facebook and Twitter.
- Download social media tools and yard signs to show your opposition to Amendment 1.
- Volunteer to Call for Equality – a national, virtual GOTV phone banking effort against Amendment 1.
Update: This evening, Republican congressional candidate Edwin Peacock released a video expressly to voice his objection to Amendment One saying it is an "unnecessary government hurdle that is bad for business."
Very interesting.