“Apple is leading the charge of Silicon Valley firms who have spoken out against President Donald Trump’s decision to roll back federal protections for transgender students in public schools,” Annie Palmer writes for TheStreet. “The tech giant denounced the change in a statement late Wednesday and was later joined by Microsoft and Uber, who both issued dissenting statements in support of the LGBT community.”
“It’s no surprise that Apple was quick to rally against Trump’s decision,” Palmer writes. “Apple also advocated for Congress to support the Employment Nondiscrimination Act in 2013, in addition to the LGBT Equality Act passed in 2015. Apple and other leading technology companies headquartered in California have increasingly taken on the role of advocates for social justice issues, often because the federal or state actions threaten many of their employees’ livelihoods.”
“And for Apple’s CEO, the issue of LGBT rights perhaps strikes an even more personal chord. Cook came out as gay in a 2014 editorial for Bloomberg,” Palmer writes. “But like Facebook, whose CEO Mark Zuckerberg last week wrote a 6,000-word manifesto on the company’s role in preventing fake news, terrorism and isolationism, these statements are an insignificant threat to their multi-billion dollar bottom lines… ‘It has no impact,’ Tim Bajarin, president of technology research firm Creative Strategies, said. ‘We’ve studied this whole issue on whether people buy based on decisions made by management as opposed to products. It doesn’t mean there won’t be people who dislike what CEOs are saying, but they don’t buy Apple based on its position. They buy because of the product, and whether it does what it needs to do for them.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We can’t wait to see Apple’s next-gen iPads! Can you?
SEE ALSO:
Apple condemns President Trump’s decision to rescind federal transgender bathroom guidelines – February 23, 2017
Tim Cook’s Apple: More socially responsible, less visionary – August 24, 2016
Apple’s politics may be hurting its brand – June 29, 2016
Apple objects to North Carolina law company says discriminates against LGBTs – March 28, 2016
Apple backs U.S. bill banning lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender discrimination – July 23, 2015