Private Interest, Public Good, or Both? An Analysis of Fortune 500 Anti-Discrimination and Benefits Policies.

Over the past several years, many political scientists have addressed the subject of gay rights in the United States. Some have investigated the adoption of anti-discrimination laws at the local level while others have focused on the state level. However, very few have sought to examine the impact of corporate policies on public policymaking. This study seeks to bridge those gaps by joining the literature on gay rights, interest groups, and policy diffusion with Richard Florida's sociological findings concerning the American workplace. Specifically, I seek to address the increasing-yet rarely studied-role that major corporations are playing in shaping gay rights policy. The results strongly indicate that while traditional partisan/ideological differences are still paramount, that large corporations (especially Fortune 500 companies) play a significant role in pressuring state governments to enact more tolerant public policies. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]