EA, Gearbox, Microsoft and over 60 other companies have signed a letter against the Texas anti-trans bill.
On February 22, 2022, the governor of Texas Greg Abbott has issued an order for child protection services to investigate families of transgender children receiving gender-related health care for child abuse. The next day, Abbott called on all Texans, as well as industry professionals, to report parents for “child abuse” under threat of criminal negligence.
Today, 65 companies, including several gaming industry giants such as Electronic Arts, Gearbox Software and Microsoft, have signed a letter organized by theLGBTQ Human Rights Campaign organization which “calls on the governor to abandon anti-LGBTQ + efforts”.
“Our companies do business, create jobs and serve customers in Texas.” The letter reads. “We are calling on our public leaders – in Texas and across the country – to abandon efforts to embed discrimination into law and politics. It’s not just wrong, it impacts our employees, our customers, their families and the our work “.
Many of the signatories, including EA, Microsoft, and Gearbox, are members of Texas Competes, a network of pro-LGBTQ businesses. Texas Competes chief executive Jessica Shortall told Kotaku that many Texas companies are partially motivated by a desire to be able to hire qualified people. The job market is complex and hiring highly technical employees is less obvious than one might think. It is explained that various job offers were turned down when applicants were asked to relocate to Texas. It should also be known that 32% of game developers identify as non-straight and nearly 10% identify as a genre other than the one assigned at birth.
We also point out that this letter is not the first time during which Gearbox Software took a stand on the rights of transgender people. Last year, an executive testified against a bill that would have banned transgender athletes from competing in sports. Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford also opposed Texas’s anti-trans bathroom use law in 2017, a law that would have forced people to use toilets in public buildings only based on the gender listed on birth certificates.
On 2 March, theAmerican Civil Liberties Union of Texas managed to block child protection services from investigating the parents of a transgender child who was receiving medical treatment. The court is currently debating whether the ACLU’s restraining order, applied in such a situation, would apply more generally to the governor’s orders as well.
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