Apple among corporations supporting transgender Gavin Grimm in Supreme Court case

Apple and 52 other major U.S. corporations have signed a legal brief in support of Gavin Grimm, a transgender student whose case involving public bathroom usage rights is being heard by the Supreme Court.

Fifty-three companies signed the brief supporting Grimm’s arguments. In Silicon Valley, that list includes Apple, Intel, eBay, LinkedIn, Box, NetApp, PayPal and Yahoo. Amazon and Microsoft also signed the brief. Collectively, the group employs 1.3 million people, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

The brief argues that 82 percent of Fortune 500 companies have written policies that prevent discrimination based on gender identity and half offer transgender-inclusive health benefits, including surgical procedures.

“These companies are sending a powerful message to transgender children and their families that America’s leading businesses have their backs,” Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin said in a statement. “Across the country, corporate leaders are speaking out because they know attacking transgender youth isn’t just shameful — it also puts the families of their employees and customers at risk. Transgender students like Gavin are entitled to the full protection of the law, and must be affirmed, respected and protected in the classroom and beyond.”

Last month, President Donald Trump’s administration removed Obama-era federal guidance around transgender students. Those protections stated that schools cannot discriminate against students based on their sex or gender identity. Trump’s decision to roll back those protections could hurt Grimm’s case, legal experts say.

The companies that signed the brief include:

• Affirm
• Airbnb
• Amazon.com
• Apple
• Asana
• Box
• Codecademy
• Credo Mobile
• Dropbox
• eBay
• Etsy
• Fastly
• Flipboard
• Gap
• General Assembly
• GitHub
• IBM
• Intel
• Kickstarter
• PBC
• Knotel
• LinkedIn
• Lyft
• M Booth
• MAC Cosmetics
• Mapbox
• Marin Software
• Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance
• Microsoft
• Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams
• MongoDB
• NetApp
• Next Fifteen Communications
• Nextdoor
• Pandora
• PayPal
• Postmates
• Replacements, Ltd.
• RetailMeNot
• Salesforce
• Shutterstock
• Slack
• Spotify
• The OutCast Agency
• The WhiteWave Foods Company
• Tumblr
• Twilio
• Twitter
• Udacity
• Warby Parker
• Williams-Sonoma
• Yahoo!
• Yelp
• Zendesk

Agencies/Canadajournal