Borderlands developer Gearbox Software has threatened to abandon their Texas headquarters over the state’s newest round of transphobic legislation.

The company came forward to voice their opposition on yet another surge of bills targeting trans people—particularly transgender youth. They join the roster of names such as Amazon, Microsoft, PayPal, and Apple standing strong against “a resurgence of efforts to exclude transgender youth from full participation in their communities.”

In an open letter signed by the aforementioned companies—and more—the companies noted that the passage of laws such as last week’s Texas Senate Bill 29 (S29), named the “Fair Sports for Women and Girls Act,” was an objective piece of evidence that “discrimination is real” and could potentially hinder their ability to attract talent to their businesses.

“We will continue to oppose any unnecessary, divisive measures that would damage Texas’ reputation and make our customers, our visitors, and our employees and their families feel unwelcome or unsafe,” it read.

David Najjab, Director of Institutional Partnerships at Gearbox, testified before the Texas Committee on Public Education on Tuesday, April 20. In his testimony, he alluded to the possibility that such discriminatory laws could result in the company leaving the state it has been based in since 1999.

“Our game companies are in competition worldwide. We sell more to Asia than we do in the United States. We bring a lot of money [to Texas]. We’re headquartered here,” he said, “Don’t drive us to where we have to start expanding outside of Texas and outside of the country.”

Najjab would later go on to compare S29 to the prolific “bathroom bill” from 2017 which would have barred transgender youth and students from using the correct facilities.

Additionally, Randy Pitchford, Gearbox CEO, wrote a personal letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott concerning the issue. He doubled down on the sentiment expressed both by Najjab and the open letter.

“We are in a battle for globally competitive talent, and our ability to successfully recruit and retain our future workforce is critical to our long-term economic prosperity. Discriminatory laws will only increase the challenges that we face in attracting top talent to Texas,” he wrote.

When asked for a statement, outlets were told that Najjab’s testimony could “stand alone” in lieu of a larger release.

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Source: https://www.dbltap.com/posts/gearbox-threatens-to-leave-texas-over-transphobic-legislation-01f3x7g713zw?utm_source=RSS