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Apple backing LGBT anti-discrimination Equality Act

Apple is officially putting its weight behind new LGBT anti-discrimination legislature currently being proposed in Congress. The company said in a statement to the Human Rights Campaign that it actively supports the Equality Act.

At Apple we believe in equal treatment for everyone, regardless of where they come from, what they look like, how they worship or who they love. We fully support the expansion of legal protections as a matter of basic human dignity.

Apple’s support for the bill that would expand federal protections in the workplace to LGBT Americans in all states follows several years of Apple CEO Tim Cook calling on Congress to pass such legislation, and Apple’s backing is in line with its own company policies.

Nearly two years ago, the Apple CEO published an op-ed in the WSJ asking for Congress to pass the Employment Nondiscrimination Act, and again made the same request publicly early last year. Cook wrote quite candidly about his passion for LGBT issues and equality in an essay last fall in which he first publicly acknowledged being gay.

As a company, Apple hasn’t been shy about publicly positioning itself behind the LGBT equality movement either. The company has maintained a sizable presence at San Francisco’s annual Pride parades for years. Apple has also publicly opposed unpopular, anti-gay legislation in the past.

The Equality Act that Apple backed today would serve to extend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and ensure LGBT Americans cannot legally face discrimination when it comes to employment, housing, and other issues where 31 states currently don’t enforce protections.

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Comments

  1. MacFabulous - 9 years ago

    Good for them 😊👍🏼

  2. chrisl84 - 9 years ago

    Is it time for a sister site 9to5Liberalism yet?

    • why should people be forced to have sex with people they are unattracted to? oh yeah, that bible who’s pages i wipe with. Hope your confederate flag is washable.

      • chrisl84 - 9 years ago

        Class act right here

      • daitenshe - 9 years ago

        #2edgy

    • flaviosuave - 9 years ago

      No, but there’s 9to5bigots – the perfect place for you to hang out!

      • chrisl84 - 9 years ago

        Nice one, if you need anymore clever comebacks that you cant write yourself feel free to rephrase my comments as needed.

    • If you don’t like liberalism, stop using technology. Or your right to vote. Or using sidewalks. Stop driving on roads paid for with my non-car owning taxes. Your gas taxes certainly don’t pay for the roads. Stop flying in tax subsidized airports. Stop drinking water from the tap. Stop calling the fire department. Or using public schools. Or buying subsidized gasoline secured with military paid for with taxes. All of that is liberalism. But why argue? You’ll just say nothing should be subsidized, that we need radical Ayn Rand libertarianism. Right?

      • chrisl84 - 9 years ago

        Moronic and uninformed as to be expected. Yes we should have but one view point in this country…..the good old tolerant liberals attacking someone who doesn’t have the same views #bakemycake #killthebabies #downtheflag

      • mbalensiefer - 9 years ago

        Headlantern, you need to pull your Head out of your Lantern. What you speak of is “CAPITALISM”; Liberalism does nothing but reverse capitalism’s sways. It is merely Socialism in disguise. How’s that Federal Budget working for you.

      • Let’s start with reducing the military’s budget. It’s the biggest federal line item at 75% of the entire budget and it basically is used to secure better deals in the middle east for capitalist oil companies. Let’s take ONE year’s worth of military spending and boost electric cars, institute dynamic gas taxes and invest in proper public transportation. Then the people on the fringes wouldn’t be so dependent on driving but could do so with more stable gas prices and gas taxes that wouldn’t gouge them the same way it would a Ferrari driver downtown or a single occupancy driver along a train route. You agree with me, right?

      • webzpinner - 9 years ago

        Reducing military spending and putting that money into public transport would only do one thing… Give money to the contractors to languish and NOT spend on infrastructure. No one uses public transport, if they have ANY other means. I’ve lived in Northern California and in salt lake, where they basically give away public transport (free anywhere downtown) and still people avoid it.

        No, government needs to be taken OUT of business, not given more control. Why would you think giving control of something to someone who has no accountability will make it better? You want better public transport, innovative technologies, and better healthcare? Get the government out of all of that. Doctor visits used to cost a loaf of bread and a bushel of grain… Now it’s $150+… Why? People are forced to get insurance for non-catastrophic health issues. No one, rich, poor, etc, should need insurance to get shots, have a non-complicated birth, basic hospitalization, etc. those should be market reactive. Save insurance for things like cancer, aids, lupus, etc.

      • DJR (@darrealism) - 9 years ago

        @HeadLantern, if you want to reduce military spending from 75% of the budget, good news: already done! It’s more like 20%. By far the largest portion of the budget goes to entitlement programs.

        http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/01/07/everything-chuck-hagel-needs-to-know-about-the-defense-budget-in-charts

        Also if liberalism gets credit for roads, then the military should probably get credit for all the tech that has trickled down to us from military research and use.

      • @darrealism LOL you picked an article from the Post :) How bout one less biased? https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/

        Earned benefit programs are NOT entitlements, which imply “free, not paid into”, those are listed separately.

    • tylercomments - 9 years ago

      Chris, this site reports apple news, this article was a news story about something apple has done, it did not state any personal or political opinion, if you are so uncomfortable by these news that you felt the need to hint at censorship, please leave this site and the internet for that matter.

  3. DJR (@darrealism) - 9 years ago

    This would be great, if it really meant what it said. Nobody should be discriminated against. However, recent history shows us that the gay rights movement is very interested in trampling religious people’s freedom of conscience, and I’m not on board with that. “Apple is open for everyone.” Unless you happen to disagree with it about contemporary sexual mores, that is.

    I preferred Steve Jobs’s apolitical Apple to the Tim Cook era. There’s something a little unseemly about using the world’s largest company to back your personal pet issues.

    • flaviosuave - 9 years ago

      You can call blatant discrimination “religious people’s freedom of conscience,” and I can call a wet, glistening turd a gold rupee, but that doesn’t make either of those things true.

      • webzpinner - 9 years ago

        The right to exercise your religious beliefs is a fundamental, spelled-out part of the constitution.

      • The right to exercise your religion ends where my anus begins.

      • mbalensiefer - 9 years ago

        This must be yet another one of your “facts”, right? Retard: go back to preschool with your “My dad can beat up your dad” crap.

      • LOL i don’t think you get the concept of “rights” when it comes to your silly imaginary friend of religion.

      • mbalensiefer - 9 years ago

        It’s getting old, HeadUpHisAssLantern… Nobody wants you here. Can’t you see that? We are all “normal” people; we are asking the Troll to leave. Go back to ass-munching your little brother. Bye-bye little boy. Sorry your dad molested you and turned u gay. Come back when you like Vagina.

      • Why beat up faggots if you’re not closeted and self hating? Why try so hard to prove your imaginary heterosexuality is real? You can’t pray the gay away. Just admit you’re a coward.

    • Steve Jobs was a libertarian, not a liberal. He was quite political. He just fooled his customers to THINK he was a hippie like them.

  4. I’m gay, but I don’t like this stuff or ANY news popping up my mac book air dashboard/message notification thing. No way to uninstall it either. Android and Samsung make way better phones than Apple by the way. Why didn’t apple notify me they were discontinuing mag safe? I mean, THAT is certainly a positive thing to brag about isn’t it?

    • Jonny - 9 years ago

      hahaha

    • chrisl84 - 9 years ago

      Im guessing they just must hate people who brag about wipping their ass with the pages of the bible

      • Chris, your bible was written by men, not Dog. Your tooth fairy is not watching you masturbate. You’re going to have to learn to control yourself. There is no spy cam looking down from heaven. Can you manage yourself? Or do you need a manager?

    • You clicked yes to allow notifications… Instead of whining about it, turn it off in Safari> Preferences> Notifications

      • Thanks, but no I didn’t, “allow 3rd parties to ask….” was checked. If I “accidentally” clicked on a fast moving pop up window, thats not my choice. I never even used this site before today. I’m NOT a apply fanboy. I just happen to own one of their appliances.

      • And by the way, why so defensive? Did you develop the technology? Are you an apple employee? A fanboy? Tell me, why DO you sit and say nothing about magsafe being discontinued? Loyalty? Showing support for gay CEO? what IS your religious computer ideology telling you to do in order to feel valid, worthy and needed? Computing is everything, isn’t it?

  5. iphone6splus - 9 years ago

    Are religious bakers protected to worship by not making homosexual marriage themed cakes?

    • chrisl84 - 9 years ago

      Of course not, tolerance is a one way street.

    • Absolutely! You have the right to refuse ANY customer. It’s just that religious people are STUPID about how they go about it. Try coming into MY bakery. I’ll make damned sure I won’t serve you, legally.

      • chrisl84 - 9 years ago

        shut up and bake me a cake

    • If you hate liberalism so much, why do you own a gender neutral iPhone? It’s obviously liberal. Get a conservative manly gender specific Galaxy Note like I did. It’s actually way better than iPhones ever will be. For the record, I’m a Mac Air using homosexual baby killer.

  6. iphone6splus - 9 years ago

    Are religious bakers protected to worship by not making homosexual marriage themed cakes?

  7. bhayes444 - 9 years ago

    So, pretty much legislation that should just be an addendum to the civil rights act. I didn’t think it would take this long…

  8. I love apple products however I feel this is nothing to do with them as politics is not their game. They should do their thing and let politicians and the public vote for their rights and legislation.

    Congress doesn’t tell them how to make an iPhone!

    Sticking their noses in purely because of the CEO’s leaning. Not right and not their fight. It should be his personal fight not the company’s fight

    • WaveMedia (@WaveMedia) - 9 years ago

      “Congress doesn’t tell them how to make an iPhone!”

      Ever wondered what all those logo’s on phones are for? You know, the FCC mark etc. That’s governments telling them how to make an iPhone.

    • I applaud progressive internal policy changes, but don’t want to read about it. Apple is an appliance company, not a religion, not an emotional brand I’m going to connect with above and beyond that. I don’t even like all it’s appliances, like their phones. I only like their Air.

  9. Rich Davis (@RichDavis9) - 9 years ago

    Here’s an excerpt form his coming out speech. “I don’t consider myself an activist,” For a long time Apple user, Tim is embarrassing.

    Tim, you need to focus on running Apple. Also, you have other things to do that need to be taken care of in terms of civil rights that are actionable.

    • Jonathan - 9 years ago

      “Tim, you need to focus on running Apple.”

      Yes, it surely took days to write two sentences in response to the Human Rights Campaign. Apple PR had to pull in iOS Engineering, OS X Engineering, watchOS Engineering, Marketing, and Industrial Design to check it over before they released it.

      Oh, wait. Apple’s an enormous company with tens of thousands of employees who can, surprisingly, focus on more than one thing at once.

      • Rich Davis (@RichDavis9) - 9 years ago

        What’s your problem? He mentions at his coming out event that he doesn’t consider himself an activist, yet he does this stuff. And? He’s being a hypocrite. He’s getting paid to run Apple not to be an activist. Plus, Apple has other civil rights type violations they need to take care of which they are avoiding.

      • Jonathan - 9 years ago

        Here’s how this likely went:

        1. Human Rights Campaign asks Apple if the company supports the non-discrimination act.
        2. Apple PR responded with a brief statement saying that Apple does support the law.

        Tim likely wasn’t involved, and if he was, he probably just replied to an email asking if they could go ahead with the statement with “Sure.”

    • Homosexual baby killer here – I would rather they take more MEANINGFUL actions like using burrito fed cage free hipsters to make their appliances in America instead of factory farmed humans in china.

  10. darevsek - 9 years ago

    @DJR (@darrealism), @iphone6splus
    Sooo, if a religious person freedom’s in a public work place/business is so important, what if they did not want to serve an interracial couple for something. OH, wait, that is already against the federal law. Can’t discriminate against race, age, sex, etc. LGBT is not listed in that yet.

    If I remember my human resource training correctly, say a person’s religion say’s they can’t work a certain day, and the business is usually open for that day and not the business holiday. Then that person is to take PTO time for that religious day of theirs. Religion is a PERSONAL thing, not a public thing. You can practice your religion anyway you want, can even talk about it. But here is the thing. Public business is another story. Public business goes by public rules/laws. I want people to start stopping divorced people, interracial couples, etc and see how long their “religious freedoms” get them. But they won’t because it’s already against the law to do that. So, a satanist can get away with killing a co-worker because “I have to make a human sacrifice on every third Thursday” because my religious freedom to do so.

    Your religion is not mine, and therefore should not be subject to your ‘morals”.

    @SparkleEntertainment (@SparkleLive)
    This is NOT politics, this is a civil rights issue.

    No, it’s not their fight to make sure all their employee’s or potential employee’s all have the same rights. NOOOOOOO, not at all.

    Please do yourself a favor and learn about why we have a judicial branch and why voting on rights is not a welcome thing in this country. If people voted for everything then we would be speaking German instead of english, and would have been for few centuries.

  11. Jim Phong - 9 years ago

    Tim Cook should stop using Apple for his own political nonsense gay agenda.
    Steve Jobs wasn’t doing any political crap with Apple for a good reason.
    Tim Cook is just too dumb to avoid doing that.

    • Tim Cook is emotional, like most Apple customers. Steve Jobs was cold and non-feeling. Like most religious conservatives when it comes to OTHER peoples wants.

    • Yes, it’s his big fat gay agenda. But why are YOUR panties so drenched in his semen about it?

      • mbalensiefer - 9 years ago

        You’ve got serious issues, dude.

      • Answer the question please. Why do you have another mans semen crusting in your panties?

      • mbalensiefer - 9 years ago

        Why must you bring other men’s semen into your own argument? Libtard.

      • Why are you an Apple customer? It’s liberal and promotes homosexuality. Is it because you want secretly to come out?

      • mbalensiefer - 9 years ago

        I don’t buy Apple. I buy Samsung because it makes sense. Why do you eat at Chick Fil A? Is it because you are trying to become normal?

      • I have a Samsung too and a Mac. Why are you here? Do you own any other apple products or are you just a religious troll?

  12. Matthew (@tumwalth) - 9 years ago

    The comment section of this article is one giant circle jerk from 2-3 people. All of you sound completely stupid, and your arguments are ruined by you spewing your bullshit back and forth(forever). Just different forms of hate coming from everyone on this thread.

    • Yup, I hate those who hate me first. I’m not required to tolerate their imaginary Dog, their toilet paper woven into a book of falsified truths, their legalized persecution of everything around them that isn’t exactly how their book of toilet paper says it’s supposed to be. Yet here they are buying apply products and naming themselves after products designed by the very people they want to convert suppress or lobotomize.

  13. “Steve Jobs believed in Object Oriented Programming, which was founded on Objectivism. Therefore, he was telling us computer professionals that we should be LIBERTARIANS because Ayn Rand spoke of Objectivism” You might as well go further with that. “if customers aren’t using good features, get rid of those features. don’t teach them how to use them”. Simple solutions for complex problems, right? “What’s good for computing is good for government”

  14. All of you PC apologists who think it’s “wrong” to chastise these religious idiots commenting here need to realize this. You’re not going to gain any kind of acceptance or team participation from being nice to them, ignoring them, appeasing them. That kind of non-violence sh!t is why it’s taken THIS long to get THIS far.

    People who are conservative and religious AND have a problem with apples homosexual agenda need to leave. Boycott the company and it’s products. STOP BUYING IPHONES and buy poor white trash Androids like the one I proudly have.

    Why are y’all such hypocrites? You name yourselves on here after apple products, who’s very basis of existence IS about liberalism in design, aesthetics, marketing, image and performance.

    Go buy your conservative christian business crap from nokia, microsoft, huawei and walmart. Why are you shopping apple? you aren’t needed, you aren’t wanted.

    If all 100,000,000 of you boycotted the company it would have to turn against the homosexual agenda. Why don’t you put your money where your mouth is and DO something about apples liberal destruction of america?

    BECAUSE YOU’RE ALL TALK.

    • mbalensiefer - 9 years ago

      Are you currently seeing a psychiatrist, LanternHead?

      • Are you asking because I’m right? Or are you asking because you’d like me to refer you to a good one?

      • mbalensiefer - 9 years ago

        Please name me yours.

      • Try reparative ex gay therapy. It will help you straighten up your closeted, self hating ways.

      • mbalensiefer - 9 years ago

        I;ve only known gays to self-loathe. And they nsist they will feel better when they get straights to listen to their sob story.

      • Is that why you won’t come out of the closet?

      • mbalensiefer - 9 years ago

        I have gay friends. So I already know how you gay folk think. You would feel much better about your sexuaility if every straight man you could turn gay. it won’t happen on 9-5-mac, man. Take your trolling elsewhere. The rest of the world makes reproductive sense: deal with it. Seek counsel. Take Prozac. Do something with your life other than insist that everybody else be “gay”. Gay does not work. Why can’t you get that through your thick numbskull?

      • This must be why you’re stuck in your closet.

      • mbalensiefer - 9 years ago

        *17. Need I say more? YOU are gay. Everyone else is not. Stop lying to yourself to make your HIV-infested self feel better.

      • Then why beat up homos if you were comfortable with your imaginary heterosexuality?

      • mbalensiefer - 9 years ago

        You never gave me your psychiatrist’s name.

      • I never saw anybody who specialized in closet cases who defend their religious prison. You might want to try googling one in your area.

    • mbalensiefer - 9 years ago

      Last time I checked, you Gay folk are still eating at Chick Fil A! Hypocrite.

      • Only the ones who don’t care. I guess thats why you still by socialist Apple products? Because you just want to whine and complain not get off your butt and take America back?

      • mbalensiefer - 9 years ago

        What is “by” socialist product? Speak English, please. This is America.

      • By as in “please by me a bible so I can rip pages out of it to wipe myself with and hand you the results”.

      • mbalensiefer - 9 years ago

        As in “learn how to spell ‘BY'”. Bye-bye. Dipshit.

      • Learn how to spell “nsist” or just stick to the facts. You’re a self hating closet homosexual masquerading in drag as heterosexual christian conservative. Like 99% of you patriots who need to beat a homo for doing nothing at all.

      • mbalensiefer - 9 years ago

        Logic check: If I was a homo, then why would I beat up a hom? Dipshit.
        I already know how you gay folk think. You would feel much better about your sexuaility if every straight man you could turn gay. it won’t happen on 9-5-mac, man. Take your trolling elsewhere. The rest of the world makes reproductive sense: deal with it. Seek counsel. Take Prozac. Do something with your life other than insist that everybody else be “gay”. Gay does not work. Why can’t you get that through your thick numbskull?

      • If you beat up homos, it’s BECAUSE you’re a homo. Yes you are! Deep down. You hate how you think you would be perceived if you allowed yourself to come out. So you go the opposite way. You deny, beat up faggots, chant from the Bible when you have sex with a man once in a great while, kill him when you’re done, etc LOL you’re trying so hard to hide it you’re OBVIOUS!

      • mbalensiefer - 9 years ago

        Are you still here, dude?
        Answer us one question: Are you comfortable in your sexuality?

      • Nope. That’s why I hide behind religion. To protect me from people who ARE comfortable with their sexuality.

  15. Dave Huntley - 9 years ago

    Once again I am left to wonder why this site leaves the racist, offensive and or discriminatory crap and name calling comments on here. Once you get responses like “homosexual baby killer ” its not free speech, it’s hate. Or the wildly off topic. Lgbt issues bring out wing nuts I know, but why let them soil your site?

    • I know what you mean. Why Christian Conservatives call me a homosexual baby killer is beyond me. Spilling seed is considered murder I think. According to their holy book made from pages of toilet paper.

  16. I thought this article was insightful regarding this topic, not trying to troll, but laws/bills/legislation like these are always a slippery slope. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2015/04/14899/

    • You’re not *trying* to troll…

      …HOWEVER…

      “since rights to love compromises somebody else’s rights to hate from the biblical perspective, we should therefore do nothing”

    • mbalensiefer - 9 years ago

      Interesting. I wonder how things have played out in France and other places that it is legal, etc. It simply seems that no locale can combine the two: effectively making freedoms for both!

      • The difference is, religion is an imaginary, not-real, made up mental illness that’s treatable with science. And it hurts way more people than it helps. Homosexuality actually EXISTS and isn’t isn’t hurting anybody, except those who want grand kids to wipe their butts with pages of the bible or confederate flag.

  17. Assuming religion is real, not some made up, imaginary mental disorder, why are all these alleged “Christian Conservatives” buying Apple products? BOYCOTT IT and go away. There are far bigger and more important problems you caused in this world that need solving.

  18. mbalensiefer - 9 years ago

    I once beat up a gay guy for checking me out. I’d like to do the same to you and your butt buddies.

    • That’s because you hate your inner homosexual. You’re not the first. You’re the easiest kind to spot because you try to hard to prove you’re not.

  19. Why don’t people just boycott Apple if they don’t like this? Because they are all talk. And too stupid to learn how to use an Android product.

Author

Avatar for Zac Hall Zac Hall

Zac covers Apple news, hosts the 9to5Mac Happy Hour podcast, and created SpaceExplored.com.