Apple, Google and Microsoft oppose Texas order on LGBT community

(Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google are among a group of U.S. companies signing their name to an ad set to run in Texas on Friday opposing the state’s legislation concerning young transgender people, according to people familiar with the matter. Microsoft Corp. will also join them in the effort, the company confirmed on Thursday. 

Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said in a tweet late Thursday that he’s “deeply concerned” about laws being enacted across the U.S. that affect members of the LGBTQ community. Cook’s message came soon after Axios reported that Apple is among companies calling on Texas Governor Greg Abbott to abandon an order that likens gender-affirming health-care for transgender children to child abuse.

The ad that’s slated to appear in Friday’s edition of the Dallas Morning News said the recent Texas legislation “creates fear for employees and their families, especially those with transgender children, 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,” according to a copy seen by Bloomberg News.

“We call on our public leaders -- in Texas and across the country -- to abandon efforts to write discrimination into law and policy,” the ad concluded.

Also signing onto the ad are Meta Platforms Inc., Johnson & Johnson, PayPal Holdings Inc. and several other companies, according to the Axios report.