Apple, other tech companies decry North Carolina anti-LGBT law

Big tech companies like Apple, Facebook and Google have voiced opposition to the passing of a controversial North Carolina law that dissolves anti-discrimination protections for the LGBT community.

Gov. Pat McCrory signed House Bill 2 (PDF link) into law on Wednesday after the anti-LGBT legislation sped through a special General Assembly session earlier this week. Dubbed HB2, the bill is a direct response to a recently adopted Charlotte ordinance protecting transgender individuals' rights to use bathrooms of the gender with which they identify.

The law's passage drew sharp criticism from civil rights groups, sports organizations and a variety of large businesses. As reported by The Charlotte Observer's Katie Peralta, Apple spoke out against HB2 on Thursday, joining a chorus of condemnation from influential tech companies including Cisco, Facebook, Google, IBM, Intel, Salesforce and others.

"Apple Stores and our company are open to everyone, regardless of where they come from, what they look like, how they worship or who they love. That's why we support the federal Equality Act," Apple said in a statement. "Our future as Americans should be focused on inclusion and prosperity, and not discrimination and division. We were disappointed to see Governor McCrory sign this legislation."

Apple, whose brand message of inclusion sits in diametric opposition to the new pro-discrimination statute, is in a sticky situation as it also holds substantial, and permanent, investments in the state.

Unlike some other corporations that have transient ties with North Carolina, Apple operates not only five retail locations, but a massive data center in Maiden and three equally large solar farms. In a related development, Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff threatened to move his firm's upcoming Connections conference in Georgia if a similar bill passed there. Apple cannot simply relocate its infrastructure.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, a recognized civil rights advocate who has in the past leveraged his high-profile position to denounce discrimination, has yet to broach the subject.

131 Comments

thewhitefalcon 4444 comments · 10 Years

About 8 years ago

So are Apple and other companies saying that only their opinion matters? Are they better than the voters of North Carolina that wanted this? I thought the left didn't like big business and money in politics?

Dai 1 comment · 8 Years

thewhitefalcon said:

So are Apple and other companies saying that only their opinion matters? Are they better than the voters of North Carolina that wanted this? I thought the left didn't like big business and money in politics?

Did the voters of North Carolina want this? A rushed bill discussed in virtual secret doesn't seem like a democratic outcome. I'll stand corrected f the members of the NC legislature stood on a ticket of undoing anti-discriminatory legislation, but I doubt that's what happened. What "the voters" want is seldom what the people they vote for actually do, and what the elected do is seldom what voters want.

folk fountain 27 comments · 10 Years

thewhitefalcon said:

So are Apple and other companies saying that only their opinion matters? Are they better than the voters of North Carolina that wanted this? I thought the left didn't like big business and money in politics?

Actually what the legislature and governor did was overturn an LGBT anti-discrimination law passed in Charlotte. The legislature called a special session introduced the bill in the morning, passed it in the afternoon, and the governor signed the bill that night at 10PM. What they did was make it so that local governments cannot pass LGBT protections, and they can't change the minimum wage, only the state government can. So they hate gay people so much that they go out of there way to make life difficult. Oh and the minimum wage thing. I guess they love poor people. That's why they want to make sure they stay poor.

tommikele 599 comments · 12 Years

thewhitefalcon said:

So are Apple and other companies saying that only their opinion matters? Are they better than the voters of North Carolina that wanted this? I thought the left didn't like big business and money in politics?

There is nothing to show that the voters of North Carolina wanted this. The results at the ballot box will show if a majority of voters wanted this. And if they did, Apple and every other company is free to disagree and take their facilities and business elsewhere. After all, didn't the Supreme Court in Citizens versus United declare that corporations are individuals for the purpose of expressing their free speech rights? It's thinly disguised law to legalize discrimination under the guise of protecting religious freedom. Your "left" comment is little other than a hypocritical load designed to deflect from your own endorsement of discrimination and bigotry. The only person you are fooling is yourself.

tnet-primary 242 comments · 13 Years

Dai said:

thewhitefalcon said:

So are Apple and other companies saying that only their opinion matters? Are they better than the voters of North Carolina that wanted this? I thought the left didn't like big business and money in politics?

Did the voters of North Carolina want this? A rushed bill discussed in virtual secret doesn't seem like a democratic outcome. I'll stand corrected f the members of the NC legislature stood on a ticket of undoing anti-discriminatory legislation, but I doubt that's what happened. What "the voters" want is seldom what the people they vote for actually do, and what the elected do is seldom what voters want.

You're right. Obamacare being the perfect example of your last sentence.

With regard to this situation...this state legislation is in response to an ordinance passed in the city of Charlotte that was extremely controversial. The state passed its measure to strike the local measure down.