Capitalism and Gay Progress

Another blogger piles onto the irrelevance of the Human Rights Campaign. Why is HRC more closet-friendly than much of "conservative" corporate America? Money quote:

If current trends continue, gays and lesbians may well be the test case that proves that employment nondiscrimination laws aren't really necessary at all take any sufficiently developed capitalist economy, free it from public or private coercion, and the profit motive may just be enough to end discrimination all by itself.

When I made that point in Virtually Normal, I got the usual brickbats. But a decade later, with HRC's beloved Employment Non-Discrimination Act still in limbo and marriage rights already here in one state, and all-but reality in several others, it doesn't look so outrageous. Some news reports say that ENDA and the hideous extension of the "hate" crimes law could pass in this session. I also hear that some HRC figures don't want these bills to pass too soon because they think they can use them against Republicans in 2008. Are they that cynical? My own sense is that HRC will be reluctant to move on ENDA and hate crimes because success omn these decades-long goals would leave them with nothing much else to do. And they just built a vast multi-million dollar office complex!