Equality NC Thanks Chris Hughes and Our Other Courageous Business Leaders
9/14/2011 - Equality NC is deeply grateful to North Carolina native and Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes for his open letter to the North Carolina General Assembly concerning the deep harms of the anti-LGBT amendment, and for his "good-guy-gone-viral" Facebook challenge to us. We also applaud all of the North Carolina business leaders who took a heroic stand for us at yesterday's press conference leading up to our anti-amendment rally. In light of this week's actions by the North Carolina House and Senate, we invite ALL companies in North Carolina who care about their LGBT employees to stand with Equality NC in opposition to the amendment.
Robert Page of Replacements, Ltd., and Mitchell Gold of Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, long-time supporters of our work, spoke eloquently and passionately about the effects a divisive amendment battle will have on our young people. They joined representatives of several other enlightened companies who spoke movingly about why it's so important not to enshrine discrimination in our state constitution.
Our other brave press conference speakers were:
- Eric Boggs, CEO, Argyle Social
- Richard Degnan, Vice President, Brand and Values, The Body Shop, Americas Region
- Martin Eakes, CEO, Self-Help and the Center for Responsible Lending
- Brian Fitzsimmons, The Sorin Group Insurance
- Anthony J. Pugliese, CPA/CITP, Senior Vice President of Finance Membership and Operations, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)
Last week when Chris Hughes told us he would make a donation of $10 each for up to 1,000 new Facebook fans Equality NC could attract between Friday, September 9, and Tuesday, September 13, we certainly thought we could meet it--after all, we had been all about the anti-LGBT amendment all the time--but we never thought we would meet and exceed it in the first four hours.
By midnight this past Saturday, Equality NC's Facebook fans had doubled from 6,750 to 13,500, with people liking us and sending us heartfelt messages of support from all across the state, country, and as far away as Romania and Australia.
As of 6:00 PM today, September 14, Equality NC's Facebook fans have reached 37,137, making it almost two thirds the size of Equality California's (the largest state equality group) at 60,327.
Our most heartfelt thanks go to Chris Hughes for his truly galvanizing support, to Chris and his fiancee Sean Eldridge for their trailblazing gift of $10,000 for their Facebook challenge, and to Eric Boggs, Richard Degnan, Martin Eakes, Brian Fitzsimmons, Mitchell Gold, Robert Page, and Anthony J. Pugliese.
Both they and their companies will remain forever in our hearts for taking their principled stand.
If your company would like to take an equally principled stand against the anti-LGBT amendment, please contact Kay at kay@equalitync.org or 919.829.0343 x 112.
Equality NC's "What's Next?" Town Hall Meeting Tour
