Letter from major business leaders across the country to be delivered by HRC President Chad Griffin and Equality NC Executive Director Chris Sgro this morning to NC Governor Pat McCrory demanding he and the North Carolina General Assembly repeal the radical provisions of discriminatory HB 2 in upcoming legislative session
WASHINGTON – This morning, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, and Equality NC, the state organization working to secure equal rights and justice for LGBT North Carolinians, announced that executives from Starbucks, Citibank, TD Bank, Hilton, Starwood Hotels, Choice Hotels, eBay, Accenture, Kellogg Company, Reddit, Barnes & Noble, Atlassian, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, Ingersoll-Rand, Wasserman and the Wasserman Foundation, and CA Technologies have signed onto an open letter that now includes more than 100 leading CEOs and business leaders calling on Governor Pat McCrory and the North Carolina General Assembly to repeal the radical provisions in the deeply discriminatory House Bill 2 that was rammed through the legislature last week.
HRC President Chad Griffin and Equality NC Executive Director Chris Sgro will deliver the letter this morning personally to Governor McCrory’s office. The letter — signed by dozens of CEOs from across the nation — was made public Tuesday afternoon, and came only a day after Georgia Governor Nathan Deal announced he would veto anti-LGBT legislation in Georgia after facing a sustained outcry from a broad chorus of advocates and companies. A copy of the updated letter and its signatories can be found here and below.
"Discrimination is bad for North Carolina, bad for America, and bad for business," said HRC President Chad Griffin when announcing the open letter on Tuesday. "These business leaders are speaking out because they know this attack on lesbian, gay, bisexual and especially transgender North Carolinians isn't just morally wrong — it also puts their employees, customers and North Carolina's economy at risk. For the sake of all North Carolinians, Governor McCrory and the General Assembly must act now to repeal this heinous attack on fairness and equality."
"North Carolina's place as a business leader in the South is based on fairness, inclusion, and diversity,”said Equality NC Executive Director Chris Sgro Tuesday with the release of the open letter. “HB 2 does not represent North Carolina values, and it weakens our competitive edge. We are glad to see our business community in the Old North State standing up against discriminatory measures like this. Governor McCrory made a mess of our state last week, and our businesses are leading the charge to repair our state to a place of fairness."
On Monday, Gov. McCrory unbelievably claimed, “We have not taken away any rights that have currently existed in any city in North Carolina" — but PolitiFact rated that claim as false. H.B. 2 has eliminated existing municipal non-discrimination protections for LGBT people and prevents such protections from being passed by cities in the future. The legislation also forces transgender students in public schools to use restrooms and other facilities inconsistent with their gender identity, putting 4.5 billion dollars in federal funding under Title IX at risk. It also compels the same type of discrimination against transgender people to take place in state buildings, including in public universities. Lawmakers passed the legislation in a hurried, single-day session last Wednesday, and Governor McCrory quickly signed it into law in the dead of night.
North Carolina has the unfortunate distinction of becoming the first state in the country to enact a law attacking transgender students, even after similar proposals were rejected across the country this year — including a high-profile veto by the Republican Governor Dennis Daugaard of South Dakota. North Carolina school districts that comply with the law will now be in direct violation of Title IX, subjecting the school districts to massive liability and putting an estimated $4.5 billion of federal funding from the U.S. Department of Education, as well as funding received by schools from other federal agencies, at risk. This section of House Bill 2 offers costly supposed solutions to non-existent problems, and it forces schools to choose between complying with federal law — plus doing the right thing for their students — or complying with a state law that violates students’ civil rights. Read more about how this bill puts federal funding at risk here.
The full letter to Governor McCrory and list of signatories is below:
Dear Governor McCrory,
We write with concerns about legislation you signed into law last week, HB 2, which has overturned protections for LGBT people and sanctioned discrimination across North Carolina. 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 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. This is not a direction in which states move when they are seeking to provide successful, thriving hubs for business and economic development. We believe that HB 2 will make it far more challenging for businesses across the state to recruit and retain the nation’s best and brightest workers and attract the most talented students from across the nation. It will also diminish the state’s draw as a destination for tourism, new businesses, and economic activity.
Discrimination is wrong and we believe it has no place in North Carolina or anywhere in our country. As companies that pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming to all, we strongly urge you and the leadership of North Carolina’s legislature to repeal this law in the upcoming legislative session.
Sincerely,
Karen Appleton, Senior Vice President, Box Brandee Barker, Cofounder, The Pramana Collective Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce Chip Bergh, President and CEO, Levi Strauss & Co. Michael Birch, Founder, Blab Ed Black, President and CEO, Computer & Communications Industry Association Nathan Blecharczyk, Cofounder and CTO, Airbnb Steven R. Boal, CEO, Quotient Technology Inc. Ron Boire, CEO, Barnes and Noble Lorna Borenstein, CEO, Grokker Brad Brinegar, Chairman and CEO, McKinney John Bryant, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Kellogg Company Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, co-CEOs, Atlassian Lloyd Carney, CEO, Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. Brian Chesky, CEO, Airbnb Ron Conway, Founder and Co-Managing Partner, SV Angel Tim Cook, CEO, Apple Dean Debnam, Chairman and CEO, Workplace Options Jack Dorsey, CEO, Square and Twitter David Ebersman, Cofounder and CEO, Lyra Health Jared Fliesler, General Partner, Matrix Partners Joe Gebbia, Cofounder and Chief Product Officer, Airbnb Jason Goldberg, CEO, Pepo Alan King, President and COO, Workplace Options Kristen Koh Goldstein, CEO, BackOps Mitchell Gold, co-founder and chair-man, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams John H. Graham IV, President and CEO, American Society of Association Executives Logan Green, CEO, Lyft Mike Gregoire, CEO, CA Technologies Paul Graham, Founder, Y Combinator David Hassell, CEO, 15Five Charles H. Hill III, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Human Resources, Pfizer Inc. Reid Hoffman, Chairman, LinkedIn Robert Hohman, Cofounder & CEO, Glassdoor Drew Houston, CEO, Dropbox William H. Howle, President of U.S. Retail Banking Group, Citibank Steve Huffman, CEO, Reddit Chad Hurley, Cofounder, YouTube Dave Imre, Partner and CEO, IMRE Dev Ittycheria, President & CEO, MongoDB Laurene Powell Jobs, President, Emerson Collective Cecily Joseph, VP Corporate Responsibility and Chief Diversity Officer, Symantec Corporation Steve Joyce, CEO, Choice Hotels International Travis Kalanick, CEO, Uber David Karp, Founder and CEO, Tumblr Travis Katz, Founder and CEO, Gogobot Brian Krzanich, CEO, Intel Joshua Kushner, Managing Partner, Thrive Capital Michael W. Lamach, Chairman and CEO, Ingersoll-Rand plc Max Levchin, CEO, Affirm Dion Lim, CEO, NextLesson Shan-lyn Ma, CEO, Zola Tom Mangas, CEO, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Bill Maris, CEO, Google Ventures Marissa Mayer, President and CEO, Yahoo Melody McCloskey, CEO, StyleSeat Douglas Merrill, CEO, Zestfinance Dyke Messinger, President and CEO, Power Curbers Inc. Brian Moynihan, CEO, Bank of America Hari Nair, Vice President and General Manager, Orbitz.com & CheapTickets.com Christopher J. Nassetta, President & Chief Executive Officer, Hilton Worldwide Michael Natenshon, CEO, Marine Layer Alexi G. Nazem, Cofounder and CEO, Nomad Health Laurie J. Olson, EVP, Strategy, Portfolio and Commercial Operations, Pfizer Inc. Bob Page, Founder and CEO, Replacements, Ltd. Doug Parker, Chairman and CEO, American Airlines Mike Pedersen, CEO and President, TD Bank, N.A. Michelle Peluso, Strategic Advisor and former CEO, Gilt Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google Mark Pincus, Founder and Executive Chairman, Zynga Hosain Rahman, CEO, Jawbone Bill Ready, CEO, Braintree Evan Reece, CEO, Liftopia Stan Reiss, General Partner, Matrix Partners John Replogle, CEO, Seventh Generation Chuck Robbins, CEO, Cisco Systems Virginia M. Rometty, Chairman, President and CEO, IBM Corporation Dan Rosensweig, CEO, Chegg Kevin P. Ryan, Founder and Chairman, Alleycorp Bijan Sabet, General Partner, Spark Capital Julie Samuels, President, Engine George A. Scangos, PhD, CEO, Biogen Steve Schoch, CEO, Miramax Dan Schulman, President and CEO, PayPal Howard Schultz, Chairman and CEO, Starbucks Adam Shankman, Director and Producer Gary Shapiro, President and CEO, Consumer Technology Association David A. Shaywitz, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer, DNAnexus Behshad Sheldon, President and CEO, Braeburn Pharmaceuticals Ben Silbermann, CEO, Pinterest Brad Smith, President and Chief Legal Officer, Microsoft Arne Sorenson, President and CEO, Marriott International David Spector, Cofounder, ThirdLove Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO, Yelp Julie Sweet, Group Chief Executive North America, Accenture Bret Taylor, CEO, Quip Todd Thibodeaux, CEO, CompTIA David Tisch, Managing Partner, BoxGroup Nirav Tolia, Cofounder and CEO, Nextdoor Kevin A. Trapani, President and CEO, The Redwood Groups Mark Trudeau, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals Ken Wasch, President, Software & Information Industry Association Casey Wasserman, Chairman and CEO of Wasserman & President and CEO of the Wasserman Foundation Bob & Harvey Weinstein, Co-Founders and Co-Chairmen, The Weinstein Company Devin Wenig, CEO, eBay Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO, Facebook
