Angie’s List Joins Tim Cook In Scolding Indiana Over Law“Angie’s List Inc., the consumer-review webs

Angie’s List Joins Tim Cook In Scolding Indiana Over Law“Angie’s List Inc., the consumer-review website, withdrew a proposal to expand its Indianapolis headquarters after Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed legislation that critics say discriminates against gays.The company’s announcement Saturday that it was pulling its planned $40 million investment from City-County Council consideration, days before it planned to break ground, follows statements of concern about the Indiana law earlier this week by technology-industry leaders including Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook and Salesforce.com Inc. CEO Marc Benioff.Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law Thursday. The statute gives businesses the right not to serve gays and lesbians on religious grounds.“Angie’s List is open to all and discriminates against none and we are hugely disappointed in what this bill represents,” Angie’s List CEO Bill Oesterle said in a statement. The company said it would begin reviewing alternatives for its headquarters expansion.Apple’s Cook wrote in a Twitter post on Friday that his company is “deeply disappointed in Indiana’s new law.” He called on the Arkansas governor to veto a similar measure in that state.“Around the world, we strive to treat every customer the same – regardless of where they come from, how they worship or who they love,” Cook wrote in a subsequent post.Cook criticized his home state of Alabama in October for not protecting people based on their sexual orientation. A few days later, in an essay in Bloomberg Businessweek, he said he was gay. “I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me,” he wrote.Salesforce’s Benioff tweeted on Thursday that the business-software maker was “canceling all programs that require our customers/employees to travel to Indiana to face discrimination.”Lawmakers have introduced more than 85 bills that penalize members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in 28 state legislatures this year, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT-rights organization.“Many of these bills could critically undermine the enforcement of state nondiscrimination protections and passing them will do serious harm to the business climate of these states,” the organization wrote in response to the Indiana law. The group plans to place a full-page ad in the San Jose Mercury News to inform Silicon Valley companies about the law, Jason Rahlan, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, said by e-mail.”Read the full piece hereU.S. Readers, register to vote here: http://www.vote411.org -- source link

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