With the Alabama Senate recently passing the Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act, the bill is now currently in the House of Representatives.
If this bill does pass, doctors caught prescribing puberty-blockers or hormones to minors will be charged with a felony.
What’s more, according to the act, school faculty such as principals, counselors, and teachers are also required to refrain withholding any information regarding gender identity of transgender children from their parents.
Companies such as Apple, Google, and Amazon has said that passing this bill and other bills that affect LGBTQ community negatively will end up hampering their business as well.
What’s more, the aforementioned companies, a few of which are also based out of Alabama, said that the bill does not align with their values of inclusion, fair treatment, and equality.
Less inclusive practices, in essence, somehow end up resulting in lower productivity and lesser profits, the companies said.
As of now, more than 40 businesses have signed an open letter, published through a national LGBTQ advocacy organization known as the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).
Read the letter here.
Here are the businesses who have already signed:
- AEO Inc.
- Airbnb
- Amalgamated Bank
- Amazon
- American Airlines
- Apple
- Asana, Inc.
- AT&T
- Bayer US LLC
- Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc.
- Boehringer Ingelheim USA
- Capital One
- Corning Incorporated
- CSAA Insurance Group
- Dow Inc.
- Dropbox Inc.
- Eastern Bank
- Hilton
- IBM Corp.
- IKEA North America Services, LLC
- Instacart
- Levi Strauss & Co.
- Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics
- Lyft, Inc.
- Marriott International, Inc.
- MassMutual
- Microsoft
- Mobilize
- Nike, Inc.
- PayPal
- Salesforce
- SunLife
- Sustainable Food Policy Alliance,
- Nestlé USA
- Unilever United States
- TechNet
- Trillium Asset Management
- Uber
- Unilever United States
“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,” reads an excerpt from the letter.
One of the biggest supporters of the bill, Rep. Wes Allen believes that gender dysphoria is a mental disorder. Moreover, he says that minors should receive mental health treatment but not a hormone or puberty-related treatment.
