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70+ tech leaders join unprecedented call to legislators
From a press release
2015-04-02

This article shared 2627 times since Thu Apr 2, 2015
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WASHINGTON — More than 70 technology industry leaders have joined in an unprecedented statement to legislators calling for the addition of non-discrimination protections for LGBT people to civil rights laws. Launched yesterday in response to a host of anti-LGBT bills pending or signed in to law in states around the country, well over three times the number of the initial signers have been added as of today. More are expected to continue signing on to the historic call for action.

New additions include: Shervin Pishevar, CoFounder, Sherpa Ventures; David Karp, CEO, Tumblr; Reid Hoffman, Chairman, Linkedin; Kevin Ryan, Chairman, Gilt; Michael Birch, CoFounder, Bebo; Hosain Rahman, CEO, Jawbone; John Zimmer, President, Lyft; Bill Ready, CEO, Braintree; Jon Oringer, CEO, Shutterstock Images; Drew Houston, CEO, Dropbox; Bijan Sabet, General Partner, Spark Capital; Douglas Merrill, CEO, ZestFinance; Tom Sheahan, CEO, RedOxygen; Brian Samelson, CEO, eMaint.com; Jeff Weiner, CEO, LinkedIn; Daniel Lurie, CEO, Tipping Point Community; Aaron Levie, CEO, Box; Jeff Weiner, CEO, Linkedin; Gary Moore, President & COO, Cisco; Travis Katz, CEO, Gogobot; Joe Davis, CEO, Webtrends; Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft; Brad Smith, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Microsoft; Josh Kopelman, Partner, First Round Capital; Rob Glaser, CEO, Realnetworks; Brian Krzanich, CEO, Intel; Jason Goldberg, CEO, Hem; Evan Reece, CEO, Liftopia; Dave Gilboa, CoFounder, Warby Parker; Neil Blumenthal, CoFounder, Warby Parker; Sean Parker, Chairman, Airtime; Reed Hastings, CEO, Netflix; and Charles Phillips, CEO, Infor.

"This unprecedented and historic effort by the giants of the tech industry should be a clarion call to policymakers that discriminating against LGBT people is not acceptable in today's marketplace of ideas," said HRC President Chad Griffin yesterday in response to the initial launch. "These leaders have made it clear: if states want high tech jobs, they must put fully inclusive nondiscrimination protections in place immediately."

"If anything can be learned from the battle for fairness and equality in Indiana, Arkansas, and other states, it's that LGBT people deserve to be protected from unjust discrimination," said Max Levchin, CEO of Affirm, and the organizer of the joint statement yesterday. "We are proud to stand on the side of liberty and justice and call on all legislatures to add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes in non-discrimination protections. This will ensure that no one faces discrimination while everyone preserves their right to live out their faith."

The updated list of leaders is reflected below.

Joint Statement from Tech Industry Leaders

The values of diversity, fairness and equality are central to our industry. These values fuel creativity and inspiration, and those in turn make the U.S. technology sector the most admired in the world today.

We believe it is critically important to speak out about proposed bills and existing laws that would put the rights of minorities at risk. The transparent and open economy of the future depends on it, and the values of this great nation are at stake.

Religious freedom, inclusion, and diversity can co-exist and everyone including LGBT people and people of faith should be protected under their states' civil rights laws. No person should have to fear losing their job or be denied service or housing because of who they are or whom they love.

However, right now those values are being called into question in states across the country. In more than twenty states, legislatures are considering legislation that could empower individuals or businesses to discriminate against LGBT people by denying them service if it they felt it violated their religious beliefs.

To ensure no one faces discrimination and ensure everyone preserves their right to live out their faith, we call on all 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.

Anything less will only serve to place barriers between people, create hurdles to creativity and inclusion, and smother the kind of open and transparent society that is necessary to create the jobs of the future. Discrimination is bad for business and that's why we've taken the time to join this joint statement.

Sincerely,

Max Levchin, CEO, Affirm

Mark Pincus, Chairman, Zynga

Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO, Yelp

Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce

Jack Dorsey, CEO, Square

Dick Costolo, CEO, Twitter

Logan Green, CEO, Lyft

Brian Chesky, CEO, Airbnb

Joe Gebbia, CPO, Airbnb

Nathan Blecharczyk, CTO, Airbnb

Ron Conway, Founder, SV Angel

John Donahoe, CEO, Ebay

Paul Graham, CoFounder, YCombinator

Rich Barton, Chairman, Zillow Group

Chad Hurley, CEO, Mixbit

Adora Cheung, CEO, Homejoy

Phil Libin, CEO, Evernote

Trevor Traina, CEO, IfOnly

Nirav Tolia, CEO, Nextdoor

Dion Lim, CEO, NextLesson

Bret Taylor, CEO, Quip

Joe Lonsdale, Managing Partner, Formation 8

Thomas Layton, Chairman, Elance-odesk

Fabio Rosati, CEO, Elance-odesk

Dave Morin, CEO, Path

Mark Goldstein, Chairman, BackOps

Kevin Rose, CEO, North Technologies

Yves Behar, CCO, Jawbone

Padmasree Warrior, CTSO, Cisco Systems

Tony Conrad, CEO, about.me

Sunil Paul, CEO, Sidecar

Michael Moritz, Chairman, Sequoia Capital

Dan Schulman, President, PayPal

Devin Wenig, President, eBay Marketplaces

Robert Hohman, CEO, Glassdoor

Laurene Powell Jobs, Founder and Chair, Emerson Collective

Mohan Warrior, CEO, Alphalight

David Spector, CEO, ThirdLove

Shervin Pishevar, CoFounder, Sherpa Ventures

David Karp, CEO, Tumblr

Reid Hoffman, Chairman, Linkedin

Kevin Ryan, Chairman, Gilt

Michael Birch, CoFounder, Bebo

Hosain Rahman, CEO, Jawbone

John Zimmer, President, Lyft

Bill Ready, CEO, Braintree

Jon Oringer, CEO, Shutterstock Images

Drew Houston, CEO, Dropbox

Bijan Sabet, General Partner, Spark Capital

Douglas Merrill, CEO, ZestFinance

Tom Sheahan, CEO, RedOxygen

Brian Samelson, CEO, eMaint.com

Jeff Weiner, CEO, LinkedIn

Daniel Lurie, CEO, Tipping Point Community

Aaron Levie, CEO, Box

Jeff Weiner, CEO, Linkedin

Gary Moore, President & COO, Cisco

Travis Katz, CEO, Gogobot

Joe Davis, CEO, Webtrends

Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft

Brad Smith, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Microsoft

Josh Kopelman, Partner, First Round Capital

Rob Glaser, CEO, Realnetworks

Brian Krzanich, CEO, Intel

Jason Goldberg, CEO, Hem

Evan Reece, CEO, Liftopia

Dave Gilboa, CoFounder, Warby Parker

Neil Blumenthal, CoFounder, Warby Parker

Sean Parker, Chairman, Airtime

Reed Hastings, CEO, Netflix

Charles Phillips, CEO, Infor


This article shared 2627 times since Thu Apr 2, 2015
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