Tim Cook, Satya Nadella, Others Praise Supreme Court's Landmark Decision Protecting LGBTQ Employees

America's business leaders are praising the majority 6-3 Supreme Court ruling that LGBTQ employees are entitled to federal protections against job discrimination in states where such protections were not available.

What Happened

The Supreme Court has extended employment protections against discrimination to millions of LGBTQ workers under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, reported MarketWatch.

CEO of Apple Inc AAPL, a high-profile openly gay executive, tweeted on Monday in support of the Supreme Court decision.

Grateful for today’s decision by the Supreme Court. LGBTQ people deserve equal treatment in the workplace and throughout society, and today’s decision further underlines that federal law protects their right to fairness.

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) June 15, 2020

Alphabet Inc.'s GOOGL GOOG CEO Sundar Pichai also applauded the ruling on Twitter and announced donations to the extent of $2.4 million to organizations such as the Trevor Project, which provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth in honor of Pride Month. 

Calling the ruling “an important milestone,” Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft Corp., MSFT said on Twitter, “Let’s use this decision as a catalyst to drive progress in our society.”

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook Inc FB, wrote in a Facebook post, “The LGBTQ+ community deserves fair and equal treatment just like everyone else, and I'm glad our highest court has affirmed those rights.”

Why It Matters

The landmark ruling is of significance as millions of workers across the United States will receive protections previously denied to them.

President Donald Trump called the decision "very powerful" and said, "They've ruled and we live with the decision."