Apple has joined politicians, rights groups and businesses, including Arizona's own Chamber of Commerce, to urge state governor, Jan Brewer, to veto a bill permitting businesses to deny service to gay and lesbian customers on strength of the religious choices of business owners, according to Computer World.
Apple says the bill will be bad for business in the state and could cause it to retract from doing business there, CW reported.
Apple, in November, announced plans to build a sapphire glass plant in Arizona, prompting Brewer to say:
"Apple will have an incredibly positive economic impact for Arizona and its decision to locate here speaks volumes about the friendly, pro-business climate we have been creating these past four years," according to CW.
Given that a significant slice of the world's population, Apple's customers and employees, happen to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, Apple has chosen to support them, CW reported.
Arizona's anti-gay bill claims to protect the religious freedom to refuse service to gay people, at least one of the proponents of the law has not considered how it can be applied to enable Arizonans to refuse customers who are divorced, single mothers, or from other groups that the Bible admonishes against, according to CW.
For Apple, opposition to the bill is a requirement as it reflects its own policies of tolerance for people from within differing sexual, racial or gender-based groups and in order to do business in Arizona, it needs to protect those of its workers and customers who come from such groups, CW reported.
That's the same kind of commitment to employee well-being Apple was widely encouraged by the world's media to follow with regard to the rights of workers within its supply chain, according to CW.
Apple's commitment to demanding Arizona drop its anti-gay law isn't a political matter but a reflection of its own internal corporate human resources strategy, its own corporate philosophy, CW reported. It's also true to say that a philosophical position, like any religious creed, is a choice, while skin tone, gender or sexuality are not.
