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<\/p>\nMore Than 100 Major CEOs & Business Leaders Demanding North Carolina Repeal Radical Anti-LGBT Law<\/b>
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This morning, HRC 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<\/a> 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<\/a> the legislature last week.<\/p>\n 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 <\/a>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<\/a> and below.<\/p>\n “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<\/a>, gay<\/a>, bisexual<\/a> 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.”<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n 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<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> 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<\/a> about how this bill puts federal funding at risk here<\/a>.<\/p>\n The full letter to Governor McCrory and list of signatories is below:<\/p>\n Dear Governor McCrory,<\/em><\/p>\n 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.<\/em><\/p>\n 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.<\/em><\/p>\n 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.<\/em><\/p>\n Sincerely,<\/em><\/p>\n Karen Appleton, Senior Vice President, Box www.hrc.org\/blog\/more-than-100-major-ceos-business-leaders-demanding-north-carolina-repeal-r?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" More Than 100 Major CEOs & Business Leaders Demanding North Carolina Repeal Radical Anti-LGBT Law This morning, HRC 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 & … Continue reading More Than 100 Major CEOs & Business Leaders Demanding North Carolina Repeal Radical Anti-LGBT Law<\/span>
\nBrandee Barker, Cofounder, The Pramana Collective
\nMarc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce
\nChip Bergh, President and CEO, Levi Strauss & Co.
\nMichael Birch, Founder, Blab
\nEd Black, President and CEO, Computer & Communications Industry Association
\nNathan Blecharczyk, Cofounder and CTO, Airbnb
\nSteven R. Boal, CEO, Quotient Technology Inc.
\nRon Boire, CEO, Barnes and Noble
\nLorna Borenstein, CEO, Grokker
\nBrad Brinegar, Chairman and CEO, McKinney
\nJohn Bryant, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Kellogg Company
\nMike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, co-CEOs, Atlassian
\nLloyd Carney, CEO, Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.
\nBrian Chesky, CEO, Airbnb
\nRon Conway, Founder and Co-Managing Partner, SV Angel
\nTim Cook, CEO, Apple
\nDean Debnam, Chairman and CEO, Workplace Options
\nJack Dorsey, CEO, Square and Twitter
\nDavid Ebersman, Cofounder and CEO, Lyra Health
\nJared Fliesler, General Partner, Matrix Partners
\nJoe Gebbia, Cofounder and Chief Product Officer, Airbnb
\nJason Goldberg, CEO, Pepo
\nAlan King, President and COO, Workplace Options
\nKristen Koh Goldstein, CEO, BackOps
\nMitchell Gold, co-founder and chair-man<\/a>, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams
\nJohn H. Graham IV, President and CEO, American Society of Association Executives
\nLogan Green, CEO, Lyft
\nMike Gregoire, CEO, CA Technologies
\nPaul Graham, Founder, Y Combinator
\nDavid Hassell, CEO, 15Five
\nCharles H. Hill III, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Human Resources, Pfizer Inc.
\nReid Hoffman, Chairman, LinkedIn
\nRobert Hohman, Cofounder & CEO, Glassdoor
\nDrew Houston, CEO, Dropbox
\nWilliam H. Howle, President of U.S. Retail Banking Group, Citibank
\nSteve Huffman, CEO, Reddit
\nChad Hurley, Cofounder, YouTube
\nDave Imre, Partner and CEO, IMRE
\nDev Ittycheria, President & CEO, MongoDB
\nLaurene Powell Jobs, President, Emerson Collective
\nCecily Joseph, VP Corporate Responsibility and Chief Diversity Officer, Symantec Corporation
\nSteve Joyce, CEO, Choice Hotels International
\nTravis Kalanick, CEO, Uber
\nDavid Karp, Founder and CEO, Tumblr
\nTravis Katz, Founder and CEO, Gogobot
\nBrian Krzanich, CEO, Intel
\nJoshua Kushner, Managing Partner, Thrive Capital
\nMichael W. Lamach, Chairman and CEO, Ingersoll-Rand plc
\nMax Levchin, CEO, Affirm
\nDion Lim, CEO, NextLesson
\nShan-lyn Ma, CEO, Zola
\nTom Mangas, CEO, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
\nBill Maris, CEO, Google Ventures
\nMarissa Mayer, President and CEO, Yahoo
\nMelody McCloskey, CEO, StyleSeat
\nDouglas Merrill, CEO, Zestfinance
\nDyke Messinger, President and CEO, Power Curbers Inc.
\nBrian Moynihan, CEO, Bank of America
\nHari Nair, Vice President and General Manager, Orbitz.com<\/a> & CheapTickets.com<\/a>
\nChristopher J. Nassetta, President & Chief Executive Officer, Hilton Worldwide
\nMichael Natenshon, CEO, Marine Layer
\nAlexi G. Nazem, Cofounder and CEO, Nomad Health
\nLaurie J. Olson, EVP, Strategy, Portfolio and Commercial Operations, Pfizer Inc.
\nBob Page, Founder and CEO, Replacements, Ltd.
\nDoug Parker, Chairman and CEO, American Airlines
\nMike Pedersen, CEO and President, TD Bank, N.A.
\nMichelle Peluso, Strategic Advisor and former CEO, Gilt
\nSundar Pichai, CEO, Google
\nMark Pincus, Founder and Executive Chairman, Zynga
\nHosain Rahman, CEO, Jawbone
\nBill Ready, CEO, Braintree
\nEvan Reece, CEO, Liftopia
\nStan Reiss, General Partner, Matrix Partners
\nJohn Replogle, CEO, Seventh Generation
\nChuck Robbins, CEO, Cisco Systems
\nVirginia M. Rometty, Chairman, President and CEO, IBM Corporation
\nDan Rosensweig, CEO, Chegg
\nKevin P. Ryan, Founder and Chairman, Alleycorp
\nBijan Sabet, General Partner, Spark Capital
\nJulie Samuels, President, Engine
\nGeorge A. Scangos, PhD, CEO, Biogen
\nSteve Schoch, CEO, Miramax
\nDan Schulman, President and CEO, PayPal
\nHoward Schultz, Chairman and CEO, Starbucks
\nAdam Shankman, Director and Producer
\nGary Shapiro, President and CEO, Consumer Technology Association
\nDavid A. Shaywitz, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer, DNAnexus
\nBehshad Sheldon, President and CEO, Braeburn Pharmaceuticals
\nBen Silbermann, CEO, Pinterest
\nBrad Smith, President and Chief Legal Officer, Microsoft
\nArne Sorenson, President and CEO, Marriott International
\nDavid Spector, Cofounder, ThirdLove
\nJeremy Stoppelman, CEO, Yelp
\nJulie Sweet, Group Chief Executive North America, Accenture
\nBret Taylor, CEO, Quip
\nTodd Thibodeaux, CEO, CompTIA
\nDavid Tisch, Managing Partner, BoxGroup
\nNirav Tolia, Cofounder and CEO, Nextdoor
\nKevin A. Trapani, President and CEO, The Redwood Groups
\nMark Trudeau, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals
\nKen Wasch, President, Software & Information Industry Association
\nCasey Wasserman, Chairman and CEO of Wasserman & President and CEO of the Wasserman Foundation
\nBob & Harvey Weinstein, Co-Founders and Co-Chairmen, The Weinstein Company
\nDevin Wenig, CEO, eBay
\nMark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO, Facebook<\/em><\/p>\n