Amazon urged to pick LGBT-friendly state for new HQ
A group of powerful activists is asking Amazon founder Jeffrey Bezos not to put a second Amazon.com headquarters in a state lacking legal protections for gay, lesbian and transgender people, urging the executive to use his company’s high-profile relocation to further a cause he has personally supported.
Eleven of the locations are in nine states – Florida, Georgia, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia – that have not passed comprehensive legal protections for people based on their sexuality or gender.
Some additionally restrict adoption rights for gay couples, bar transgender people from using the bathrooms of their choice or banned cities from instituting equal rights protections of their own.
Bezos has been an ardent defender of gay rights for years. He and his wife, MacKenzie, donated $2.5 million in 2012 in support of same-sex marriage in Washington State and he received a national equality award last year from the Human Rights Campaign.