DES MOINES — Today, Amazon, General Mills, IBM, Microsoft, and Nestle, alongside 47 other companies with a presence in Iowa, are joining more than 150+ major companies vocally opposing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Iowa and across the country – highlighting a wave of legislation targeting transgender and LGBTQ+ youth. The list of signatories has more than tripled in the past year.

Business leaders consistently report that they have difficulty with recruitment, retention, and tourism in states that debate or pass legislation that excludes LGBTQ+ people from full participation in daily life, and that includes the children of their valued employees and recruits. These policy fights negatively impact businesses operationally and financially, and needlessly put the safety and wellbeing of their team members and their families at risk.

Last year, a record 26 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were enacted into law across ten states. In 2022, at least 160 anti-LGBTQ bills are already pending in state legislatures, more than half of which specifically target transgender youth and ban them from being able to fully participate in everyday life. Lawmakers from coast to coast are seeking to ban transgender youth from participating in sports; criminalize medically necessary, life-saving healthcare for transgender youth; ban discussion of LGBTQ youth and families in classrooms, effectively erasing our community; revive “bathroom bills” to prohibit transgender young people from simply using the restroom at school; and even undermine companies’ own internal inclusion and safe workplace programs.

“Major businesses from across the country are standing up and speaking out against anti-transgender legislation targeted at children and other state bills impacting LGBTQ+ workers, customers, and clients,” said Human Rights Campaign Interim President Joni Madison. “Businesses understand that discriminatory laws create unsafe, unhealthy, and unjust conditions in states and communities that make life untenable for families and employees. The parents of transgender young people are being forced to make difficult decisions about where they can live and still provide their children with equal opportunity to be a young person and receive appropriate healthcare. With every bill that passes, those options become more and more limited, shrinking the space in which transgender young people are allowed to exist without fear for their safety or threats upon their health and wellbeing. Companies are choosing to support their employees and their families, and if legislators are interested in ensuring a strong business climate that attracts the top talent across the country, they must stop advancing legislation that discriminates against transgender youth and LGBTQ+ people.”

"Business leaders across a variety of innovative industries and sectors continue to make it clear that inclusive environments are pro-business environments,” said Kasey Suffredini, CEO and National Campaign Director of Freedom for All Americans, the campaign to secure LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections nationwide. “The cruel legislative attacks on LGBTQ+ people, particularly transgender young people, at the state level harm real families, and they also add to businesses’ operational, recruitment, and retention challenges in an already tight job market. As states continue to recover from the pandemic, legislators should focus on policies that lift up our local economies, not make it even more difficult for vulnerable families to take care of themselves and their loved ones."

The business statement reads as follows:

The companies joining this statement do business, create jobs, and serve customers throughout the United States. Our businesses strongly embrace diversity and inclusion because we want everyone who works for us or does business with us to feel included and welcomed as their true, authentic selves. Fairness, equal treatment, and opportunity are central to our corporate values because we care about our employees and the customers we serve. What’s more, these values also matter to our bottom lines. Inclusive business practices lead to more productive and engaged employees, increased customer satisfaction; and, ultimately, improved competitiveness and financial performance.

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 - for exclusion or differential treatment. Laws that would affect access to medical care for transgender people, parental rights, social and family services, student sports, or access to public facilities such as restrooms, unnecessarily and uncharitably single out already marginalized groups for additional disadvantage. They seek to put the authority of state government behind discrimination and promote mistreatment of a targeted LBGTQ population.

These bills would harm our team members and their families, stripping them of opportunities and making them feel unwelcome and at risk in their own communities. As such, it can be exceedingly difficult for us to recruit the most qualified candidates for jobs in states that pursue such laws, and these measures can place substantial burdens on the families of our employees who already reside in these states. Legislation promoting discrimination directly affects our businesses, whether or not it occurs in the workplace.

As we make complex decisions about where to invest and grow, these issues can influence our decisions. America’s business community has consistently communicated to lawmakers at every level that such laws have a negative effect on our employees, our customers, our competitiveness, and state and national economies.

As business leaders dedicated to equal treatment, respect, and opportunity for all - as well as to improving the financial and investment climate across the country - we call for public leaders to abandon or oppose efforts to enact this type of discriminatory legislation and ensure fairness for all Americans.

For years, business leaders have shared the detrimental business impacts of policies and debates that exclude LGBTQ people from full participation in daily life, including negative impacts on workforce, recruitment, productivity, and bottom line.

In recent years, these policies have increasingly targeted LGBTQ youth, including a variety of attempts to isolate transgender youth and to make schools less safe and inclusive for LGBTQ young people.

These issues remain major concerns for business leaders, who are hearing concerns from employees and recruits about safety and inclusion for themselves and their children in states where such policies are pursued. The cumulative effect of these many attempts to exclude LGBTQ people is real, and these business signatories remain impacted by these issues. This letter, originally published in 2020, continues to grow as business leaders seek to ensure that their team members feel safe and included everywhere they operate.

National Business Statement Opposing Anti-LGBTQ State Legislation

FFAA: National Business Statement Opposing Anti-LGBTQ State Legislation

Signed:

23andMe

Accenture

Acxiom, LLC.

Adobe Inc.

Advance Auto Parts

AEO Inc.

Affirm

Airbnb

AllianceBernstein

Ally

Altria Group Inc.

Amalgamated Bank

Amazon

American Airlines

American Express

American Honda Motor Company

Anaplan

Apple

Applied Materials, Inc.

Arcadis U.S. Inc.

Asana, Inc.

AT&T

Atlassian

Bayer US LLC

BASF Corporation

BBVA USA

BCW (Burson Cohn & Wolfe)

Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc.

Berkshire Bank

Biogen

Bloomberg LP

Boehringer Ingelheim USA

Boston Scientific

Bounteous

CNA Insurance

CVS Health

Capital One

Cardinal Health

Cargill

Cargo Transporters, Inc.

Celanese

Center for Community Self-Help

Chobani

Citigroup, Inc.

The College Board

Corning Incorporated

CSAA Insurance Group

Curology

Dechert LLP

Deckers Brands (UGG, HOKA, Teva, Sanuk, and Koolaburra by UGG)

Dell Technologies

Dow Inc.

Dropbox Inc.

Eastern Bank

EMD Serono, MilliporeSigma and EMD Electronics

Early Warning Services, LLC

Eastern Bank

Elanco Animal Health

Equinix

Equitable

FactSet Research Systems, Inc.

Fastly

Flexport, Inc.

GP Strategies Corporation

GAP, Inc

Gearbox

General Mills

GoDaddy

Google

Gusto

H&M

HP Inc.

HSBC Bank USA

Hilton

IBM Corp.

ICM Partners

IHG Hotels & Resorts

IHS Markit

IKEA North America Services, LLC

Instacart

Intel

Interpublic Group

Intuit

Invitae Corporation

Johnson & Johnson

Kellogg Company

The Knot Worldwide

The Kraft Heinz Company

Legalzoom

Levi Strauss & Co.

LinkedIn

Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics

Lyft, Inc.

Macy’s, Inc.

Mailchimp

Marriott International, Inc.

Marsh McLennan

MassMutual

Medtronic PLC

Meta

MetLife, Inc.

Micron

Microsoft

Mobilize

Molson Coors Beverage Company

Momentive

Mondelez International

New Belgium Brewing

NextRoll, Inc.

Nike, Inc.

Nuance Communications

Oracle Corporation

PNC Financial Services Group

Patagonia

Patreon

PayPal

Peloton Interactive, Inc.

PepsiCo

Pfizer Inc.

REI Co-op

Randstad US

Red Hat, Inc.

Redfin Real Estate

Royal Bank of Canada

SAP

Salesforce

Signet Jewelers

Silicon Labs

Square, Inc.

State Street Corporation

SunLife

Sustainable Food Policy Alliance, including member companies Danone North America; Mars, Incorporated; Nestlé USA; and Unilever United States

Symetra Life Insurance Company

Synchrony Financial

Target

TechNet

Teva Pharmaceuticals

Thermo Fisher Scientific

T-Mobile

Trillium Asset Management

Tripadvisor

Twitter Inc.

Uber

Unilever United States

Union Pacific

United Airlines

Verizon

VMLY&R

VMware

Warby Parker

Warner Music Group

Wayside Youth & Family Support Network

Wells Fargo

Workday, Inc.

Xperi Holding Corporation

Xylem

Yelp Inc.

Yext

Zillow Group