Apple announced its support for the historic Equality Act being introduced in Congress today. The Act would establish equality for all LGBT Americans and give them protections from discrimination under federal law.
The tech giant was one of three major companies, joining Dow Chemical and Levi Strauss, to show its support of the Equality Act, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an organization working toward LGBT equality.
Here is Apple’s statement via HRC’s site:
At Apple we believe in equal treatment for everyone, regardless of where they come from, what they look like, how they worship or who they love. We fully support the expansion of legal protections as a matter of basic human dignity.
The Equality Act would protect LGBT people from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity when it comes to housing, employment and other rights. As of now, HRC reports that “31 states still lack clear, fully-inclusive, non-discrimination protections for LGBT people.”
Of course, Apple CEO Tim Cook is one of the most prominent corporate leaders who is also openly gay. As a globally recognized and respected company, Apple holds a lot of weight.
HRC also states in the release that the tech industry has been a leader in supporting LGBT equality: “Earlier this year, over 120 prominent leaders in the tech industry called on legislatures to add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes to their civil rights laws and to explicitly forbid discrimination or denial of services to anyone.”
Last month, we took a closer look at what it’s like working in tech fields for LGBT people. While improvements have been made, the Equality Act is an important step in protecting their rights and hopefully its passage will follow the landmark Supreme Court decision in support of same-sex marriage.
Below, see a full infographic from HRC outlining why we need the Equality Act to pass:
