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.
