Axios by Stephen TotiloIna Fried 3/10/2022
More than 60 companies, including some of the largest firms in tech and finance, are calling on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to abandon an executive order that equates gender-affirming healthcare for transgender children with child abuse.
Driving the news: Apple, Google, Meta, Johnson & Johnson, Ikea, PayPal, Capital One, Electronic Arts and many more firms signed an ad running in the Friday edition of the Dallas Morning News calling the new order discriminatory.
"The recent attempt to criminalize a parent for helping their transgender child access medically necessary, age-appropriate healthcare in the state of Texas goes against the values of our companies," the ad states, according to a copy of it seen by Axios.
• "We call on public leaders — in Texas and across the country — to abandon efforts to write discrimination into law and policy."
• "It's not just wrong, it has an impact on our employees, our customers, their families, and our work."
Between the lines: Corporate pushback comes in reaction to the late-February order that has emboldened the state's conservative leadership while alarming activists and parents of trans children.
More:
https://www.axios.com/ad-condemns-texas-transgender-policy-apple-google-c62e6ce2-2b79-451f-b4bd-c86d6fbaee62.html
