This week, the Texas legislature ended their special session without passing HB46 or HB50, the discriminatory “bathroom bills” that IBM has advocated against for months. We are grateful that Texas remains a welcoming place for IBMers and their families.
IBM took a vocal stance against these bills because they hurt our ability to attract and invest in talented professionals in Texas. We have operated in the Lone Star State for more than 50 years and our Texas workforce now stands at more than 10,000 employees. Our team there has played a critical role in many groundbreaking IBM innovations, and we are glad that discriminatory laws will not put future work at risk.
Discriminatory laws are a direct contradiction to IBM’s core values of diversity and inclusion. IBM was one of the first companies to include sexual orientation as part of our Equal Opportunity policy more than 30 years ago, and we extended domestic partner benefits to gay and lesbian employees in the U.S. almost 20 years ago (and have expanded these to 56 countries, eleven in the last eighteen months). Simply put, we do not believe anyone should face discrimination for being who they are. We cannot emphasize enough our unflinching repudiation of hate, particularly after the reprehensible events many of us observed this week. IBM will continue to leverage our voice and influence on these matters.
I want to thank the many IBMers, their families, and members of their communities who have made their voices heard in opposition to these bills. We are also grateful to Texas House Speaker Joe Straus and Representative Byron Cook for their leadership on this issue, and to the dozens of business leaders and legislators who joined the fight to keep Texas open and welcoming for all.
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