180 Strong: Pressure Builds as More Executives from Major Companies Call for HB 2 Repeal<\/b><\/p>\n
Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian<\/a>, gay<\/a>, bisexual<\/a>, 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 the Alcoa Inc., BASF Corporation, Ben & Jerry’s, Cascade Engineering, Dansko, Etsy, Green Mountain Power, Kickstarter, KPMG LLP, Live Nation Entertainment, New Belgium Brewing, New Seasons Market, Osceola Music, Patagonia, Self-Help, The Fresh Market, Vanguard, Warby Parker and Xerox Corporation have signed onto an open letter<\/a> that now includes more than 180 leading CEOs and business leaders urging Governor Pat McCrory and the North Carolina General Assembly to repeal the radical provisions in the deeply discriminatory law that was rammed through<\/a> the legislature on March 23rd.<\/p>\n A copy of the updated letter, which was first made public on Tuesday, March 29th, can be found here<\/a> and below.<\/p>\n “Discrimination is bad for North Carolina, bad for America, and bad for business,” <\/strong>said HRC President Chad Griffin <\/strong>in announcing the letter. “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 <\/strong>with the original launch 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 [month], and our businesses are leading the charge to repair our state to a place of fairness.”<\/p>\n HRC has also invoked<\/a> the North Carolina Public Records Law to gain access to any communications the Governor, the Executive Branch, or the General Assembly had among each other or with the kind of extreme anti-LGBT special interest groups who often craft and push this language. Specifically, the organizations are demanding that the government release any communications legislators or the Governor or his staff have had with the North Carolina Values Coalition or the Alliance Defending Freedom from the office of Gov. Pat McCrory, Senate leader Phil Berger and Speaker Tim Moore about HB 2.<\/p>\n Gov. Pat McCrory and state lawmakers are under increasingly intense pressure to repeal the discriminatory HB 2 in next week’s legislative session. Mayors and governors across the country are banning travel<\/a> to the state, musicians are cancelling concerts, and the New York Times<\/em> editorial board called North Carolina a “pioneer in bigotry<\/a>.” Major film studios and corporations, from PayPal to Deutsche Bank, have stopped investments in the state because of the new law. The United Kingdom’s Foreign Office has even warned<\/a> its LGBT citizens of the risks of traveling to North Carolina.<\/p>\n HB 2 has eliminated existing municipal non-discrimination protections for LGBT people and prevents such protections from being passed by cities in the future. In addition, the legislation prevents transgender students in public schools from using restrooms and other facilities consistent with their gender identity. It also compels the same type of discrimination against transgender people to take place in publicly-owned buildings, including in public universities, major airports, and convention centers. Further, HB 2 revokes the ability to sue under state employment non-discrimination law on the basis of any protected characteristic, including race, religion, national origin, and sex<\/a>. Lawmakers passed the legislation in a hurried, single-day session, and Governor McCrory quickly signed it into law in the dead of night. The discriminatory law is already facing a legal challenge, and North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said he will refuse to defend it in court.<\/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 HB 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 While the governor’s recent executive order<\/a> extends protections to some state workers, it does nothing to fix the vile and discriminatory provisions he signed into law through HB 2. Under HB 2, transgender people are prohibited from using restrooms consistent with their gender identity in public buildings, including the University of North Carolina campus and the Raleigh-Durham Airport. Cities still cannot adopt ordinances to prohibit discrimination against their residents and visitors. And HB 2 still prevents individuals from bringing discrimination suit in state courts.<\/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 <\/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,<\/p>\n Laura Alber, President and Chief Executive Officer, Williams-Sonoma, Inc. www.hrc.org\/blog\/180-strong-pressure-builds-as-more-executives-from-major-companies-call-for?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 180 Strong: Pressure Builds as More Executives from Major Companies Call for HB 2 Repeal Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian<\/a>, gay<\/a>, bisexual<\/a>, 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 the … Continue reading 180 Strong: Pressure Builds as More Executives from Major Companies Call for HB 2 Repeal<\/span>
\nRick Anicetti, President and CEO of The Fresh Market
\nKaren Appleton, Senior Vice President, Box
\nJames Avery, CEO, Adzerk
\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
\nLloyd C. Blankfein, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Goldman Sachs Group
\nNathan Blecharczyk, Cofounder and CTO, Airbnb
\nNeil Blumenthal, Co-founder and Co-CEO, Warby Parker
\nSteven R. Boal, CEO, Quotient Technology Inc.
\nAlex Boden, General Manager, Plum Organics
\nRon Boire, CEO, Barnes and Noble
\nLorna Borenstein, CEO, Grokker
\nBrad Brinegar, Chairman and CEO, McKinney
\nMichael Bronner, President, Dr. Bronner’s
\nCraig Bromley, President, John Hancock Financial
\nJohn Bryant, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Kellogg Company
\nUrsula Burns, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Xerox Corporation
\nWes Bush, Chairman, CEO and President of Northrop Grumman
\nMandy Cabot, Co-Founder & CEO, Dansko
\nMike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, co-CEOs, Atlassian
\nLloyd Carney, CEO, Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.
\nMarc Casper, President and CEO, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.
\nSafra Catz, CEO, Oracle
\nBrian Chesky, CEO, Airbnb
\nEmanuel Chirico, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, PVH Corp.
\nWendy Collie, CEO, New Seasons Market
\nRon Conway, Founder and Co-Managing Partner, SV Angel
\nTim Cook, CEO, Apple
\nRoger W. Crandall, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance
\nPaul T. Dacier, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, EMC Corporation
\nBracken P. Darrell, CEO, Logitech
\nDean Debnam, Chairman and CEO, Workplace Options
\nMike DeFrino, Chief Executive Officer, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants
\nBill Demchak, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
\nChad Dickerson, CEO, Etsy
\nAlex Dimitrief, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, GE
\nJack Dorsey, CEO, Square and Twitter
\nLynne Doughtie, Chairman and CEO, KPMG LLP
\nSandy Douglas, Executive Vice President & President, Coca-Cola North America, The Coca-Cola Company
\nMartin Eakes, CEO, Self-Help
\nDavid Ebersman, Cofounder and CEO, Lyra Health
\nRandy Fiser, CEO, American Society of Interior Designers
\nBlair Fleming, Head, RBC Capital Markets, U.S.
\nJared Fliesler, General Partner, Matrix Partners
\nVince Forlenza, Chairman, CEO and President, BD
\nMark Gainey, CEO, Strava Inc.
\nJoe Gebbia, Cofounder and Chief Product Officer, Airbnb
\nDave Gilboa, Co-founder and Co-CEO, Warby Parker
\nJason Goldberg, CEO, Pepo
\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
\nPeter T. Grauer, Chairman, Bloomberg L.P.
\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.
\nDick Hodgin, Co-Owner and Chief Engineer, Osceola Music Inc.
\nReid Hoffman, Chairman, LinkedIn
\nRobert Hohman, Cofounder & CEO, Glassdoor
\nLane S. Hopkins, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Capital One Financial Corporation
\nMark Hoplamazian, President and CEO, Hyatt Hotels Corporation
\nDrew Houston, CEO, Dropbox
\nStephen R. Howe, Jr., U.S. Chairman and Managing Partner, Americas Managing Partner, Ernst & Young LLP
\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
\nRichard Jenrette, Founder, Classical American Homes Preservation Trust
\nLaurene Powell Jobs, President, Emerson Collective
\nMichael O. Johnson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Herbalife
\nKim Jordan, Founder & Executive Chair, New Belgium Brewing
\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
\nFred Keller, Founder & Chairman, Cascade Engineering
\nAlan King, President and COO, Workplace Options
\nDave King, CEO, LabCorp.
\nKlaus Kleinfeld, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Alcoa Inc.
\nDavid Kohler, President & CEO, Kohler Co.
\nBrian Krzanich, CEO, Intel
\nJoshua Kushner, Managing Partner, Thrive Capital
\nMichael W. Lamach, Chairman and CEO, Ingersoll-Rand plc
\nStefan Larsson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Ralph Lauren Corporation
\nWilliam P. Lauder, Executive Chairman, The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.
\nRalph Lauren, Executive Chair and Chief Creative Officer, Ralph Lauren Corporation
\nJeff Lawson, Founder, CEO and Chairman, Twilio
\nMatthew Lepore, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, BASF Corporation
\nMax Levchin, CEO, Affirm
\nDion Lim, CEO, NextLesson
\nFrank Longobardi, CEO, CohnReznick LLP
\nShan-lyn Ma, CEO, Zola
\nElie Maalouf, Chief Executive Officer, The Americas, InterContinental Hotels Group
\nVishal Makhijani, COO, Udacity
\nTom Mangas, CEO, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
\nRose Marcario, CEO, Patagonia
\nRob Marcus, Chairman and CEO of Time Warner Cable
\nBill Maris, CEO, Google Ventures
\nMarissa Mayer, President and CEO, Yahoo
\nMelody McCloskey, CEO, StyleSeat
\nF. William McNabb III, Chairman & CEO, Vanguard
\nDouglas Merrill, CEO, Zestfinance
\nDyke Messinger, President and CEO, Power Curbers Inc.
\nChris Meyrick, Chief Diversity Officer, American Express Company
\nSteve Mollenkopf, CEO, Qualcomm Inc.
\nBob Moritz, US Chairman and Senior Partner, PwC
\nDenise Morrison, President and Chief Executive Officer, Campbell Soup Company
\nBrian Moynihan, CEO, Bank of America
\nOscar Munoz, President and CEO, United Airlines
\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
\nAlexis Ohanian, Cofounder, Reddit
\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
\nMark Pearson, CEO, AXA Financial Inc.
\nMike Pedersen, CEO and President, TD Bank, N.A.
\nMichelle Peluso, Strategic Advisor and former CEO, Gilt
\nChristine Perich, CEO, New Belgium Brewing
\nSundar Pichai, CEO, Google
\nMark Pincus, Founder and Executive Chairman, Zynga
\nMary Powell, CEO, Green Mountain Power
\nHosain Rahman, CEO, Jawbone
\nMichael Rapino, CEO & President of Live Nation Entertainment
\nBill Ready, CEO, Braintree
\nEvan Reece, CEO, Liftopia
\nStan Reiss, General Partner, Matrix Partners
\nJohn Replogle, CEO, Seventh Generation
\nWalter Robb, co-CEO, Whole Foods Market
\nChuck Robbins, CEO, Cisco Systems
\nVirginia M. Rometty, Chairman, President and CEO, IBM Corporation
\nDan Rosensweig, CEO, Chegg
\nPatricia Rossman, Chief Diversity Officer and HR Communications, BASF Corporation
\nKevin P. Ryan, Founder and Chairman, Alleycorp
\nBijan Sabet, General Partner, Spark Capital
\nBrian Samelson, CEO & President, eMaint Enterprises, LLC
\nJulie Samuels, President, Engine
\nGeorge A. Scangos, PhD, CEO, Biogen
\nCharles W. Scharf, Chief Executive Officer, Visa Inc.
\nPaula Schneider, CEO, American Apparel
\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
\nJostein Solheim, CEO, Ben & Jerry’s
\nArne Sorenson, President and CEO, Marriott International
\nDavid Spector, Cofounder, ThirdLove
\nJeremy Stoppelman, CEO, Yelp
\nYancey Strickler, CEO, Kickstarter
\nJerry Stritzke, President and CEO, REI
\nJohn G. Stumpf, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Wells Fargo & Company
\nJulie Sweet, Group Chief Executive North America, Accenture
\nChristopher J. Swift, Chairman and CEO, The Hartford
\nBret Taylor, CEO, Quip
\nTodd Thibodeaux, CEO, CompTIA
\nBrian Tippens, Vice President, Chief Diversity Officer, Hewlett Packard Enterprise
\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
\nPaul Van Deventer, President & CEO, Meeting Professionals International
\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
\nTim Westergren, Founder and CEO, Pandora Media, Inc.
\nRobert Wolfe, CEO, CrowdRise
\nMark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO, Facebook<\/em><\/p>\n