Apple, eBay, IBM Back Obama Admin's Lawsuit Against NC Transgender Bathroom Law

Nearly 70 leading companies have filed a friend-of-the-Court brief to support the Department of Justice in its lawsuit to block North Carolina's HB2 bathroom law.

The companies include American Airlines, United Airlines, Apple, Cisco, eBay, General Electric, IBM, Intel, LinkedIn, Microsoft, NIKE, Salesforce, PayPal, Ikea and the Hilton and Marriott hotel chains.

"By compelling transgender persons in North Carolina to deny their gender identity when using public facilities, H.B. 2 stigmatizes them and conveys a clear message — with the full force of State law — that they are second-class citizens whose gender identity is under-serving of solicitude or respect," the (function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push(["_mgc.load"])})(window,"_mgq");

"The way the ordinance was written by City Council in Charlotte, it would have allowed a man to go into a bathroom, locker or any changing facility, where women are — even if he was a man," stated Moore.

"We were concerned. Obviously there is the security risk of a sexual predator, but there is the issue of privacy."

In response to North Carolina's transgender bathroom law, retailer Target announced that it would adopt the policy that allows people to go into the bathrooms and dressing rooms that they identify with rather than their biological sex. This incited the conservative Christian group American Family Association to launch a petition against Target and over 1 million Americans vowed to boycott the store.

"I'm thankful to North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory & other state legislators for standing up to the bullying and intimidation of the Obama Administration over HB2, NC's bathroom bill," Graham wrote in a Facebook post after the Justice Department sent an ultimatum to McCrory claiming the state's bathroom law violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. "Our president and his appointees aren't supposed to be making laws and bypassing Congress. That's dangerous."

The Justice Department and the Department of Education recently released a "guidance," saying that all federally funded schools must allow students to use restrooms, locker rooms and other facilities and activities according to their self-proclaimed gender identity.

However, an online petition started by Family Research Council against the Obama administration's "overreach in bullying parents and local school districts" to allow students to use restrooms and other facilities as per their gender identity gained about 100,000 signatures.