Why the C.E.O. Behind Match.com and Tinder Took a Stand on the Texas Abortion Law
By now, we at the Center for Individual Freedom have probably gotten hundreds of calls and emails from readers who’ve decided to take what appear to be the right-wing approach and boycott companies like Match.com and Tinder for their alleged anti-gay or anti-woman stances. It’s a tactic that might not go over with your conservative friends. Many have suggested that if we’re really to ‘stand up for freedom,’ it should be to do so while using the same companies.
The truth is, it’s difficult to boycott such a large, important company as Match.com or even an ecommerce company like Amazon.com unless you really do believe that their business practices will undermine the freedom of its customers. That’s the only way you’re going to convince companies like them to abandon their business practices.
Why do so many people on the right go through hoops to boycott such a business? Because they don’t believe their side is given any rights or protections. They’ve already been told, in so many words, that companies like Match.com are just tools for the government to enforce our beliefs on us– and that if we’re not willing to do so, we should all be afraid of government. And if companies like this are allowed to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and/or gender preference, then we’ll have to fight the good fight all the time.
But that’s not going to happen. The freedom people see in the C.E.O. of Match.com and other companies like it is the freedom of choice, the freedom to not have to obey government mandates. We see that in the C.E.O.’s statements around this issue. They’ve already stated on behalf of their company that they’re open to changing their policies, and that all of their actions are rooted in the freedom of the customers.
It’s time we stop letting the so-called free-market economy dictate how we choose to live our lives and make our own decisions for us.
In contrast, in the case of the Texas abortion law, we saw the C.E.O. of this company making a choice that didn’t come from any