As someone who’s been working on LGBTQ equality issues for many years, I have to say I think you’re right on.

Fortune 500 corporations are much more socially progressive than various government entities, and I think primarily because of who their employees are.

I could add that at least in the area of LGBTQ issues, the irony here is that corporate America has effectively become more democratic than the U.S. government. Fortune 500 corporations have enacted “woke” policies because it’s what most Americans want. Support for LGBTQ rights in the United States is broad and strong. If the people as a whole could vote, for example, the Equality Act would go into force immediately. The vote would not even be close.

This has been true for many years. That the act cannot pass and probably will not pass for the foreseeable future is a testament to how anti-democratic our government has become.

If it had not been for the Supreme Court last year in Bostock v Clayton County, most LGBTQ Americans would not be free from discrimination in employment, but for those Americans fortunate enough to work for a Fortune 500 company, they had that protection anyway.

It’s time to address the lack of democratic functioning in our government, to ask ourselves why corporate America does a better job reflecting the will of the American people than our elected representatives do.