In a show of support for LGBT North Carolinians, Wells Fargo lit up their Duke Energy Center tower, a 54-story building, in Charlotte, in the pink, white, and blue colors of the transgender pride flag last night.
The bank lit the highrise in honor of International Transgender Day of Visibility, only a week after the governor of North Carolina signed House Bill 2, a law barring transgender people from accessing public facilities like bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity, and eliminating all LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinances in the state.
On Thursday, the CEO of Wells Fargo, John Stumpf, joined 80 business leaders in signing a letter to Governor Pat McCrory urging him to repeal HB2, reports The Charlotte Observer.Among the major companies who signed the letter are Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter.
According to the paper, Wells Fargo employs around 23,000 people in Charlotte. The bank "opposes laws that would allow people or businesses to discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community members or individuals," they told The Observer.
Wells Fargo "has a long history of support against discrimination of any kind for LGBT rights overall," they told the paper. "This is fundamental to who we are as a company and what we stand for in terms of equality and basic human rights.
The state is currently being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union, Equality North Carolina, a lesbian legal professor and two transgender men in a joint case for passing the anti-LGBT bill.