A full-page advertisement co-signed by 65 major companies including Meta, Microsoft, Google, and Apple in today’s edition of the Dallas Morning News calls on Texas legislators to abandon the directive issued by Governor Greg Abbott that classifies gender-affirming medical care as “child abuse.” “The recent attempt to criminalize a parent for helping their transgender child access medically necessary, age-appropriate healthcare in the state of Texas goes against the values of our companies,” reads the ad.
“The policy creates fear for employees and their families... who might now be faced with choosing to provide the best possible medical care for their children but risk having those children removed by child protective services for doing so,” continues the letter organized by Human Rights Campaign. The signatories — including Johnson & Johnson, Cisco, and SXSW, among many others — sternly and clearly lay out their objections to the dangerous, discriminatory, likely illegal legislation... and that’s about it. No business boycotts have been announced yet, nor explicit mention of donations to relief efforts for LGBTQ groups. But, y’know, they want everyone to know they are strongly shaking their heads in disapproval, y’all.
P.S. Noticeably absent from this list? Tesla.
A glaring omission —
To see Tesla as a no-show in today’s open letter is glaring, and speaks volumes to its priorities as a business. Musk has steadily pushed forward with moving his EV company’s headquarters from California to Texas, and has the belt buckles to prove it. The Technoking could put the heat on the Lone Star State pretty easily over Gov. Abbott’s violent, discriminatory move, and yet so far, we have radio silence. Signing a letter of disapproval is literally the bare minimum any of the companies have to do right now, and Tesla can’t even do that.
