Triangle, NC-linked businesses remain relatively quiet on LGBTQ bills in General Assembly
More than 300 businesses showed their support by signing a letter from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).
It's a message to all the states considering the same kind of bills that are working their way through the General Assembly in North Carolina.
Protests over North Carolina's "bathroom bill" in 2016 forced businesses to respond to the national ridicule of requiring people to use public restrooms based on their gender at birth.
This time around, there's relative silence.
Back then, 68 major companies joined a legal brief opposing House Bill 2 (HB2). Thirty seven of those companies have signed the HRC letter against new bills that impact the LGBTQ community in states across the country.
Included among them are Apple, Biogen, IBM, Red Hat and Salesforce -- all companies with employees here in the Triangle.
The letter read, "We are deeply concerned by the bills being introduced in state houses across the country that single out LGBTQ individuals -- many specifically targeting transgender youth."
It calls on states to "abandon or oppose efforts to enact this type of discriminatory legislation and ensure fairness for all Americans."
We reached out to some of the companies that have not signed on to that letter, asking them for their stance on these bills:
- Cisco
- GE
- Truist
- Blue Cross NC
- Bandwidth
- Pendo
- SAS
- Wolfspeed
- Epic Games
Only two responded.
Blue Cross Blue Shield said, "We do not have a comment on these bills that are currently moving through the legislative process."
Raleigh-based software company Pendo said it plans to operate in the state for years to come.
Pendo's CEO Todd Olson said, "As a member of the business community here, we want to ensure it's a welcoming state for both current and future employees and their families."
WRAL News also reached out to all the local chambers of commerce as well as the state chamber of commerce. This is the second time WRAL News has reached out in the past two weeks, and so far none of them have taken a stand on these bills.
About a year after the HB2 bill passed, the Raleigh chamber called for it to be repealed. However, when it comes to these new bills, the Raleigh chamber said it does not have a statement.
Here are a list of companies that signed an amicus brief against HB2 and have not signed the HRC letter as of May 1:
- Brocade Communications Systems (purchased since HB2, now part of Broadcom, which has NOT signed either)
- Cisco
- Consumer Technology Association
- Cummins
- eBay
- E.I. duPont de Nemours and Co.
- Everlaw
- Expedia
- FiftyThree (Purchased since HB2, now part of WeTransfer, which has not signed either)
- Galxyz
- GE
- Grokker (Part of WellFound.com, which has not signed)
- Honor
- Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams
- Morgan Stanley
- Nextdoor
- OppenheimerFunds
- Orbitz
- Pepo, Inc.
- Quotient (unclear whether this is Quotient Sciences, Quotient Technology, or a third company now out of business or otherwise purchased)
- Replacements, Inc
- Slack
- SV Angel, LLC
- Symantec
- Teespring
- TD Bank
- ThirdLove
- Tinder
- UnifyID
- Williams-Sonoma
- Zest
