Apple and over 50 other U.S.-based tech firms drafted and signed a letter last week opposing President Trump’s efforts to limit the definition of gender to birth anatomy.
CNBC:
More than 50 companies representing over $2.4 trillion in annual revenue took a stand Thursday for legal protections for transgender people following a report that the Trump administration is considering limiting the definition of gender to birth anatomy.
Tech firms, including Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and others, signed the letter opposing the Trump administration’s efforts. The letter is a response to a report earlier this month by The New York Times that discussed President Trump’s efforts to reverse legal protections to transgendered individuals provided during the Obama administration.
“Sex means a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth,” the Department of Health and Human Services proposed in a memo obtained by the Times.
If legislation were to move forward, it would jeopardize legal protections for an estimated 1.4 million Americans who identify as a gender other than the one they were assigned at birth, the Times said.
The letter in its entirety is available below:
We, the undersigned businesses, stand with the millions of people in America who identify as transgender, gender nonbinary or intersex, and call for all such people to be treated with the respect and dignity everyone deserves.
We oppose any administrative and legislative efforts to erase transgender protections through reinterpretation of existing laws and regulations. We also fundamentally oppose any policy or regulation that violates the privacy rights of those that identify as transgender, gender nonbinary, or intersex.
In the last two decades, dozens of federal courts have affirmed the rights and identities of transgender people. Cognizant of growing medical and scientific consensus, courts have recognized that policies that force people into a binary gender definition determined by birth anatomy fail to reflect the complex realities of gender identity and human biology.
Recognizing that diversity and inclusion are good for business, and that discrimination imposes enormous productivity costs (and exerts undue burdens), hundreds of companies, including the undersigned, have continued to expand inclusion for transgender people across corporate America.
Currently more than 80 percent of the Fortune 500 have clear gender identity protections; two-thirds have transgender-inclusive health care coverage; hundreds have LGBTQ+ and Allies business resource groups and internal training efforts.
Transgender people are our beloved family members and friends, and our valued team members. What harms transgender people harms our companies.
We call for respect and transparency in policymaking, and for equality under the law for transgender people.
The letter was signed by: Accenture, Adobe Systems Inc., Airbnb, Altria Group, Amalgamated Bank, Amazon, American Airlines, Apple, Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP), Bank of America, Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, BNY Mellon, Cargill, Cisco Systems Inc., Citi, Clifford Chance, Corning Incorporated, Corteva Agriscience, Deutsche Bank, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Facebook, Fastly, Inc., Google, Hogan Lovells International LLP, HSBC, IBM Corporation, Intel Corporation, Intuit Inc., Iron Mountain, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Levi Strauss & Co., LinkedIn, Lush Handmade Cosmetics, Lyft, Marriott International, MassMutual, MGM Resorts International, Microsoft Corp., Nike Inc., PepsiCo, Replacements, Ltd., Ropes & Gray, Royal Bank of Canada, S&P Global, Salesforce, Sheppard Mullin, Sodexo Inc., Splunk, State Street Corporation, The Coca-Cola Company, The Dow Chemical Company, TiVo Corporation, Trillium Asset Management, Twitter Inc., Uber and Warby Parker.
(Via AppleInsider)
