PayPal this week joined the growing
list of companies backing a federal bill that seeks to ban anti-LGBT
discrimination in all areas of civil rights.
Introduced by Democrats last month, the
Equality Act seeks to prohibit anti-LGBT discrimination in seven key
areas, including credit, education, employment, federal funding,
housing, jury service and public accommodations, by effectively
expanding the Civil Rights Act, originally approved in 1964.
“At PayPal, we have always believed
that everyone has the right to be treated equally, with dignity and
respect – which is why we were one of the first companies in
California to extend employee benefits to same-sex couples,” the
company wrote on its website.
“On an even more fundamental level,
we believe everyone deserves to live without fear of discrimination
or retaliation for simply being who they are. The provisions in the
Equality Act that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation
or gender identity will bring us another important step closer to the
day when these rights are fully enjoyed by all.”
PayPal joins Intel, Symantec, IBM,
Orbitz, American Airlines, Amazon, General Electric, HP, Microsoft,
General Mills, Google, Facebook, Nike, Apple, The Dow Chemical
Company and Levi Strauss, & Co. in supporting the bill.
Democratic presidential candidates
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Martin O'Malley and Vermont Senator Bernie
Sanders have also endorsed the Equality Act.