Corporate America is rejecting President Donald Trump's transphobia. A coalition of America's biggest companies, including Google, Amazon, Nike, Microsoft, Apple, Coke and Pepsi, are coming out against Trump's insidious efforts to erase transgender, gender nonbinary and intersex people from existence, and have written a letter.

It's a bold and necessary move, especially when the money is often the only thing some politicians will listen to. These companies, like JPMorgan Chase, Marriott International, Twitter and the Dow Chemical Co., employ nearly 4.8 million people and generate in excess of $2.4 trillion in annual revenue.

The letter condemns the Trump administration's attempts to strip federal protections and rights from the transgender and intersex communities. These efforts, starting just over one month after Trump was sworn in, include withdrawing landmark 2016 guidance for how schools must protect transgender students under Title IX federal law, removing Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regulations designed to protect transgender patients in the Affordable Care Act's nondiscrimination provisions, attempting to ban transgender service members of the military, instructing the CDC to remove “transgender” and “diversity” from official documents, and opening a Conscience and Religious Freedom Division within the HHS for the express purpose of giving medical providers with religious objections to treating transgender patients the right to discriminate.

The Trump administration's latest assault, a memo from the HHS department redefining of sex as “male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with,” is the most blatant attempt to erase the existence of an entire community of people. The memo goes on to say questions of gender would be answered with genetic testing. This definition is not based in science, completely ignoring those born with chromosomal combinations different than XX or XY and doesn't account for the thousands born with genital and reproductive organ differences, such as babies born with a uterus and testicles or a penis and ovaries.

The letter, joined by 56 major U.S. corporations, unequivocally supports the millions of people in America who identify as transgender, gender nonbinary or intersex. The letter goes on to remind the Trump administration that dozens of federal courts have affirmed the rights of transgender people, thanks to the growing body of scientific evidence that forcing people into a binary gender definition is not reflective of the complexities of human genetics. It also states that diversity is good for business, reminding this administration that more than 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies have clear gender identity protections written into their policies.

The article states in unequivocal language, “What harms transgender people harms our companies.” This is exactly what the transgender, nonbinary and intersex community needs right now post-midterm elections: a demand to our lawmakers to respect people's right to their own humanity, coming from those that can make politicians listen.

Polls show that 68 percent of Americans would rather purchase from a company that backs LGBTQ equality and the Human Rights Campaign makes companies put their money where they say their values are—with the Corporate Equality Index, which rates companies on their LGBTQ employment policies. In 2018, there were 947 companies surveyed and 609 companies scored a perfect 100 score as “Best Companies to Work for LGBTQ Equality.”

These companies are not purely altruistic actors; promoting equality directly impacts their bottom line. Studies show that progressive leadership and inclusive workplace policies lead to improved recruitment and retention of talented employees, new ideas and innovations generated by drawing on a workforce with a wide range of characteristics and experiences; increased ability to serve a diverse customer base; increased employee productivity and boosting morale and employee relations by responding favorably to requests from employees or unions.

I always say, “if it makes dollars, it makes sense” and equality is the new normal!

The letter in its entirety reads:

“We, the undersigned businesses, stand with the millions of people in America who identify as transgender, gender non-binary, or intersex, and call for all such people to be treated with the respect and dignity everyone deserves.

We oppose any administrative and legislative efforts to erase transgender protections through reinterpretation of existing laws and regulations. We also fundamentally oppose any policy or regulation that violates the privacy rights of those that identify as transgender, gender non-binary, or intersex.

In the last two decades, dozens of federal courts have affirmed the rights and identities of transgender people. Cognizant of growing medical and scientific consensus, courts have recognized that policies that force people into a binary gender definition determined by birth anatomy fail to reflect the complex realities of gender identity and human biology.

Recognizing that diversity and inclusion are good for business, and that discrimination imposes enormous productivity costs (and exerts undue burdens), hundreds of companies, including the undersigned, have continued to expand inclusion for transgender people across corporate America. Currently more than 80 percent of the Fortune 500 have clear gender identity protections; two-thirds have transgender-inclusive healthcare coverage; hundreds have LGBTQ+ and Allies business resource groups and internal training efforts.

Transgender people are our beloved family members and friends, and our valued team members. What harms transgender people harms our companies.

We call for respect and transparency in policy-making, and for equality under the law for transgender people.”

Accenture

Adobe Systems Inc.

Airbnb

Altria Group

Amalgamated Bank

Amazon

American Airlines

Apple

Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP)

Bank of America

Ben & Jerry's Homemade

BNY Mellon

Cargill

Cisco Systems Inc.

Citi

Clifford Chance

Corning Inc.

Corteva Agriscience, the Agriculture Division of DowDuPont

Deutsche Bank

E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co.

Facebook

Fastly, Inc.

Google

Hogan Lovells International

HSBC

IBM Corp.

Intel Corp.

Intuit Inc.

Iron Mountain

JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Levi Strauss & Co.

LinkedIn

Lush Handmade Cosmetics

Lyft

Marriott International

MassMutual

MGM Resorts International

Microsoft Corp.

Nike Inc.

PepsiCo

Replacements Ltd.

Ropes & Gray

Royal Bank of Canada

S&P Global

Salesforce

Sheppard Mullin

Sodexo Inc.

Splunk

State Street Corp.

The Coca-Cola Co.

The Dow Chemical Co.

TiVo Corp.

Trillium Asset Management

Twitter Inc.

Uber

Warby Parker

Angela D. Giampolo, principal of Giampolo Law Group, maintains offices in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and specializes in LGBT law, business law, real estate law and civil rights. Her website is www.giampololaw.com and she maintains two blogs, www.phillygaylawyer.com and www.lifeinhouse.com. Contact her at [email protected].