Apple CEO Tim Cook, other tech leaders call on North Carolina to repeal anti-LGBT law
More than 80 high ranking executives and business leaders on Tuesday signed an open letter asking Governor Pat McCrory and the North Carolina General Assembly to repeal a recently passed law that effectively allows for lawful discrimination against the LGBT community.
Drawn up by the Human Rights Campaign, the letter (PDF Link) decries the recently passed House Bill 2, a piece of legislation critics say eliminates non-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
Referred to as HB 2, the bill was pushed through the state's General Assembly in response to a Charlotte ordinance protecting transgender individuals' rights to use bathrooms of the gender with which they identify. The law bars transgender people -- including students at public schools -- from entering bathrooms, locker rooms and other facilities inconsistent with the gender listed on their birth certificate.
Last week, civil rights groups, sports organizations and other large businesses publicly denounced the law's passage. Along with Cisco, Facebook, Google and IBM, an unnamed Apple representative on Friday told media outlets that the company was "disappointed" in the legislation.
Disappointment seems to be a recurring theme for detractors issuing public statements on the matter, and the same sentiment was expressed in today's letter to Gov. McCrory.
"We are disappointed in your decision to sign this discriminatory legislation into law. The business community, by and large, has consistently communicated to lawmakers at every level that such laws are bad for our employees and bad for business," the letter reads. "This is not a direction in which states move when they are seeking to provide successful, thriving hubs for business and economic development."
It goes on to say that HB 2 makes recruitment and staff management difficult for employers in the state, and acts as a drag on the region's economic vitality. As leaders of companies conducting business with, or in, North Carolina, the signatories ask HB 2 be repealed during an upcoming legislative session. Apple operates five retail location and a giant data center in Maiden which draws power from three nearby solar farms, also owned and staffed by the company.
The letter is to be delivered to Gov. McCrory on Thursday.
Drawn up by the Human Rights Campaign, the letter (PDF Link) decries the recently passed House Bill 2, a piece of legislation critics say eliminates non-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
Referred to as HB 2, the bill was pushed through the state's General Assembly in response to a Charlotte ordinance protecting transgender individuals' rights to use bathrooms of the gender with which they identify. The law bars transgender people -- including students at public schools -- from entering bathrooms, locker rooms and other facilities inconsistent with the gender listed on their birth certificate.
Last week, civil rights groups, sports organizations and other large businesses publicly denounced the law's passage. Along with Cisco, Facebook, Google and IBM, an unnamed Apple representative on Friday told media outlets that the company was "disappointed" in the legislation.
Disappointment seems to be a recurring theme for detractors issuing public statements on the matter, and the same sentiment was expressed in today's letter to Gov. McCrory.
"We are disappointed in your decision to sign this discriminatory legislation into law. The business community, by and large, has consistently communicated to lawmakers at every level that such laws are bad for our employees and bad for business," the letter reads. "This is not a direction in which states move when they are seeking to provide successful, thriving hubs for business and economic development."
It goes on to say that HB 2 makes recruitment and staff management difficult for employers in the state, and acts as a drag on the region's economic vitality. As leaders of companies conducting business with, or in, North Carolina, the signatories ask HB 2 be repealed during an upcoming legislative session. Apple operates five retail location and a giant data center in Maiden which draws power from three nearby solar farms, also owned and staffed by the company.
The letter is to be delivered to Gov. McCrory on Thursday.
Comments
This bill doesn't make things hard on business, and it's time state governments stood up to bullies.
In the old days, it's an easy sell for America. Looks at the land of freedom, the democracy. Everybody loves that. Everyone love having freedom. Now it's tough. You want democracy? Beware! You'll get same sex marriage.
I can see based on the other comments in this thread that you are not alone in your ignorance, however. Take comfort in your majority in this virtual space. I pray that if someone close to you comes out as transgender you have the civility to hold your hateful tongue.
This is the line, isn't it? The misinformed premise used to sell this disgrace of a law to the uninformed. If you're so concerned about child molesters (I assume that's your actual fear, unless you're actually afraid of guys in dresses), then why aren't you worried about boys being assaulted by creeps in the men's restroom? Why not women assaulting girls? Your assumption that someone who is transgender is more likely to cause harm to a child is patently offensive and absurd.
Oh, are you a doctor? If you are, I pray you never have a transgender patient. Let me guess, you'd prescribe shock therapy? Or are you one of those "pray the gay away" types?
If these forums actually modeled the high standard of excellence and originality that Apple itself aspires to in its rhetoric and products, then the dialogue expressed on this topic would be a cause for shame in this community. As it stands, however, I am fairly certain that my words will be baselessly attacked with hateful language, if my comments are not first deleted by complicit moderators.
and how will women feel about these people in their dressing room and bathroom.
With this law, ANY man will be able to waltz into a woman's bathroom, since that's how trans men look.
There are already fucking laws against criminal behavior inside and outside bathrooms.
Little sign on doors in no way is a deterrent against criminal behavior; it's the fact that there is so much foot traffic in bathrooms which is a deterrent.
That's why in fact there is so little crime in public bathrooms (and none from "men dressing as women" to commit some)
There are private stalls in bathroom and private parts are never in view : male or female.
Funny how all this fracking information seem to go damn evacuate your mind hey.
The weird thing is that by denying the very existence of trans men, which are as plentiful as trans women, you are both denying their manhood, and treating as non threatening because they're born women (a form of misogyny and paternalism) and weirdly having a kind of misandry in thinking anyone with a penis is automatically dangerous! Yes, it's possible to be both a misogynist and a misandrist
Also, somehow forgetting that well, men are with children are on the men's side? Are these boys in danger, are only girls in danger if they're in contact with the big bad men (sic)? Because if men are dangerous to children (because pedophiles aren't interested in just girls don't you know), then surely there should be a bathroom for grown men separate from the one for children too... hmmm?
As I said, not thinking this thing through AT ALL.
http://www.advocate.com/transgender/2015/12/10/watch-men-strut-annual-transgender-bodybuilding-contest
Many people born ladies but are now men also have had phalloplasty and now have a penis. So under the new rules you will musclebound, hairy men with penises, but who were born women, being told to use the women's toilets.
And many people born males have has sexual reasignment surgery and had their male genitalia reshaped to look and function like female genitalia.
Either way this goes you will have some people upset, so why not do it in a way that discriminates least. This also happens to be the way most people won't notice that there is a transgender person using their toilets, and is least likely to instil fear into people wondering it that is a man born a man using the women's toilets or a man born a women using the women's toilets.-
This is an invented problem, dreamt up in the sick minds of conservatives. How many sexual assaults have been committed by trans people in bathrooms? Far fewer than those committed by conservative politicians, I would guess.
This commenter highlights what is central to the pro-trans argument. Surgically transform gay people into heterosexuals. It is not possible for a man to become a woman or vice versa. That is just a refusal of reality. And “woman” as a construct is not something to desire to emulate. It is ritualized submission to men. Dolling oneself up into a sexual object is not “liberating”. Quite the opposite. It is reducing oneself to an hors d’oeuvre for the consumption of men who feel entitled to a little bit of everybody. All of the characteristically feminine artifacts are means and methods to attract dominating men. That’s why lesbians appear unfeminine. That’s why people think all gay men want to be f**d up the a** and have no self respect (since society didn’t assign them the subordinate gender, why would they perform it willingly?)
Gender is socially constructed but it is not individually chosen. Masculinity is assigned to biological males and femininity is assigned to biological females with no consideration of what they want. Choosing the submissive gender because one cannot adequately perform the dominating gender does nothing to dismantle the gender system. It is a heterosexual cop out and a denial of the possibility of radical equality. It also means the literal castration of gay people, which is blithely accepted without comment by the poster above.
Masculinity and Femininity are both equally problematic. That was the original message of gay liberation. It was ok to not conform. It wasn't about switching teams and cutting off your d**k.
I'm gay, in the original sense of the word. And I'm not afraid to make controversial statements to illiberal people who seem to want to silence opinions they don't like. It doesn't occur to them that ideas don't exist in their fully developed state but are living and dynamic, always in motion and the dialog is what is important, so silencing any opinion just slows the progression of thought.
Some people would say that forcing their daughters to share bathrooms with men is horrific.You’re gonna want to try again.
I’m pretty sure the majority HERE is in favor of trannies, but statistically we’re in the majority.
Learn what hate is, for fuck’s sake.Because of statistics? Because your fallacy is meaningless to the point? Take your pick.
Except it’s proven by every statistic ever recorded, so why not stop supporting mental illness and come back to reality?Appeal to authority. Try the fuck again.
You’ve made it clear that you prefer mental illness to go untreated, so your opinion is instantaneously meaningless.
Cute, more fallacies.
Your beliefs are pretty shameful.
Learn what hate is.
The only one I’ve seen weigh in supports your side, so shut the fuck up about your victim complex and stop supporting mental illness.