Last Wednesday, Governor Pat McCrory had signed a House Bill which was anti LGBT. This bill, named HB2, was actually the response from the governor to the Charlotte ordinance, an act protecting the LGBT individuals, mainly transgender rights, where they can use the public washrooms as per their orientation, or the gender they identify themselves with.
As soon as the law against the Charlotte ordinance was passed, many civil rights groups, cultural organizations as well as big multinational corporate offices criticized the bill. According to the reports, Apple was one of the large corporates who raised their voice against the bill first. Other companies such as Sales Force, Intel, IBM, Google, Facebook, Cisco and many more joined in the movement. According to Apple, they believe in equality. Furthermore, the company stated that their retail stores will always be open to anyone regardless of their orientation of how the look or what gender they pose to be. By doing this, they are in support of the Equality Act. The spokesperson further went on into stating that the country should be more focused on including their citizens and prospering, rather than discriminating and creating divisions among them.
Due to this very statement made by Apple, they are in a very risky situation in North Carolina, where the Bill has been passed. As per knowledge, Apple not only has five top retail stores in the area, but also data center in a place called Maiden, along with quite voluminous solar farms in the area. The CEO of Sales Force had committed to leaving their location and relocating to another is such a bill is indeed passed in their area. Apple on the other hand, cannot do so, owing to the complex and established infrastructure.
