Apple, Google, and Meta are among dozens of companies calling for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to abandon recent anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.
A full-page advertisement in Friday’s print edition of The Dallas Morning News (below) features a letter signed by 65 organizations—from Akamai to Yelp—asking public leaders “in Texas and across the country” to abandon efforts to write discrimination into law and policy.
“It’s not just wrong,” the notice said. “It has an impact on our employees, our customers, their families, and our work.” Signatories include tech titans like Cisco, Dropbox, Electronic Arts, IBM, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PayPal, Pinterest, Salesforce, Shutterstock, and Yahoo.
Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted his thoughts on legislation cropping up across the US, writing that “as a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community, I am deeply concerned about laws being enacted […] particularly those focused on our vulnerable youth.”
The ad suggests that “discrimination is bad for business,” and that attempts to criminalize healthcare like hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and sex reassignment surgery (also known as gender affirmation or confirmation surgery) “goes against the values of our companies.”
“This policy creates fear for employees and their families, especially those with transgender children, who might now be faced with choosing to provide the best possible medical care for their children but risk having those children removed by child protective services for doing so,” according to the ad, which was organized by the Human Rights Campaign.
Abbott in February issued a directive to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to “conduct a prompt and thorough investigation” into reports of minors undergoing “elective procedures for gender transitioning.” Teachers, nurses, and doctors are ordered to report any cases of what the governor called “child abuse,” or face “criminal penalties.”
The DFPS and other state agencies are also charged with investigating the parents of children receiving reassignment surgery or taking puberty inhibitors, as well as facilities where such procedures occur.
Just a few states away, the Florida Senate this week passed a bill that forbids instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. If signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” measure (HB 1557) would restrict teachers from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in the classroom with children ages five to eight.
