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Apple, Amazon, Facebook and more than 50 other companies sign letter against Trump administration's proposed gender definition changes

• Companies spanning tech, financial services and consumer products are standing up for legal protections for transgender people.
• The companies represent over $2.4 trillion in annual revenue and have almost 4.8 million employees.
• The signed statement comes after a New York Times report that the Trump administration is considering limiting the definition of gender to birth anatomy.

Lauren Feiner | @lauren_feiner
Published 12:01 PM ET Thu, 1 Nov 2018 | Updated 12:08 PM ET Fri, 2 Nov 2018
CNBC.com



On July 26, 2017, after a series of tweets by President Donald Trump proposing to ban transgender people from military service, thousands of New Yorkers took to the streets in opposition.
Michael Nigro | Pacific Press | LightRocket | Getty Images

More than 50 companies representing over $2.4 trillion in annual revenue took a stand Thursday for legal protections for transgender people following a report that the Trump administration is considering limiting the definition of gender to birth anatomy.

Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google are among the companies spanning tech, consumer products and financial services that signed a statement supporting the protections.

The move is a response to an Oct. 21 New York Times report that the Trump administration is considering limiting the definition of gender to birth genitalia.

"Sex means a person's status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth," the Department of Health and Human Services proposed in a memo obtained by the Times.

If legislation were to move forward, it would jeopardize legal protections for an estimated 1.4 million Americans who identify as a gender other than the one they were assigned at birth, the Times said.

The statement from the companies, which have nearly 4.8 million employees, said "diversity and inclusion are good for business."

"Transgender people are our beloved family members and friends, and our valued team members," the statement said. "What harms transgender people harms our companies."

Out Leadership and the Human Rights Campaign mobilized the 15 LGBTQ community organizations that sought signatures for the statement.

This is the full statement along with the list of signatories:

We, the undersigned businesses, stand with the millions of people in America who identify as transgender, gender non-binary, or intersex, and call for all such people to be treated with the respect and dignity everyone deserves.

We oppose any administrative and legislative efforts to erase transgender protections through reinterpretation of existing laws and regulations. We also fundamentally oppose any policy or regulation that violates the privacy rights of those that identify as transgender, gender non-binary, or intersex.

In the last two decades, dozens of federal courts have affirmed the rights and identities of transgender people. Cognizant of growing medical and scientific consensus, courts have recognized that policies that force people into a binary gender definition determined by birth anatomy fail to reflect the complex realities of gender identity and human biology.

Recognizing that diversity and inclusion are good for business, and that discrimination imposes enormous productivity costs (and exerts undue burdens), hundreds of companies, including the undersigned, have continued to expand inclusion for transgender people across corporate America. Currently more than 80 percent of the Fortune 500 have clear gender identity protections; two-thirds have transgender-inclusive healthcare coverage; hundreds have LGBTQ+ and Allies business resource groups and internal training efforts.

Transgender people are our beloved family members and friends, and our valued team members. What harms transgender people harms our companies.

We call for respect and transparency in policy-making, and for equality under the law for transgender people.


Accenture

Adobe Systems Inc.

Airbnb

Altria Group

Amalgamated Bank

Amazon

American Airlines

Apple

Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP)

Bank of America

Ben & Jerry's Homemade

BNY Mellon

Cargill

Cisco Systems Inc.

Citi

Clifford Chance

Corning Incorporated

Corteva Agriscience™, the Agriculture Division of DowDuPont

Deutsche Bank

E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company

Facebook

Fastly, Inc.

Google

Hogan Lovells International LLP

HSBC

IBM Corporation

Intel Corporation

Intuit Inc.

Iron Mountain

JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Levi Strauss & Co.

LinkedIn

Lush Handmade Cosmetics

Lyft

Marriott International

MassMutual

MGM Resorts International

Microsoft Corp.

Nike Inc.

PepsiCo

Replacements, Ltd.

Ropes & Gray

Royal Bank of Canada

S&P Global

Salesforce

Sheppard Mullin

Sodexo Inc.

Splunk

State Street Corporation

The Coca-Cola Company

The Dow Chemical Company

TiVo Corporation

Trillium Asset Management

Twitter Inc.

Uber

Warby Parker