A group of 80 predominantly Silicon Valley-based business executives, headlined by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Apple CEO Tim Cook, signed a letter to North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory on Tuesday denouncing a law prohibiting transgender people from using the public facilities of the opposite sex.
“We write with concerns about legislation you singed into law last week, HB 2, which has overturned protections for LGBT people and sanctioned discrimination across North Carolina,” the CEOs wrote in the letter. “Put simply, HB 2 is not a bill that reflects the values of our companies, of our country, or even the overwhelming majority of North Carolinians.”
“We are disappointed in your decision to sign this discriminatory legislation into law,” the letter continued. “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 is also signed by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley, Tumblr Founder and CEO David Karp, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, Yahoo President and CEO Marissa Mayer, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, IBM President and CEO Virginia M. Rometty, PayPal President and CEO Dan Schulman, Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann and Microsoft President Brad Smith.
The law says a person must use segregated public facilities such as bathrooms and showers according to biological sex, not gender identity. A transgender person would have to have his sex legally changed on a birth certificate to use the facilities of his preferred gender.
Mr. McCrory insisted that the law, which revoked a Charlotte city ordinance that would have granted transgender people access to opposite-sex public facilities, is not discriminatory.
“I empathize with these people who have some very unique needs,” Mr. McCrory told NBC News Monday. “But at the same time it doesn’t mean everyone else should have to compromise a well-established etiquette of men in men’s locker rooms.”
In response to the tidal wave of opposition from big business hitting North Carolina, Brian S. Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, started a petition to thank Mr. McCrory for “standing strong and resisting the push to allow men in intimate facilities like showers, locker rooms and restrooms that are reserved for girls and women.”
Mr. Brown said the “extremists are being aided by powerful corporate, entertainment and sports figures who are threatening the state with economic punishment if they don’t cave in to political correctness and worship at the alter of the LGBT extremists.”
North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, a Democrat who is challenging Mr. McCrory for governor, on Tuesday said he would not defend the law in court from a lawsuit filed by several pro-LGBT groups.
“Discrimination is wrong, period,” Mr. Cooper said at a press conference. “The governor and the legislature should repeal this law.”
• Bradford Richardson can be reached at brichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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