Gap’s Art Peck and Levi’s Chip Bergh Speak Out Against Discrimination

ANTIDISCRIMINATION DUET: The chief executive officers of Gap Inc. and Levi Strauss & Co. have joined forces to make a statement, but it’s got nothing to do with a collaborative capsule collection. Art Peck, ceo of Gap, and Chip Bergh, president and ceo of Levi’s, cited their firms’ “long history of standing up for equal rights and equal opportunity for all” and against discrimination based on “race, se x or sexual orientation” in adding their voices to others in the business community in opposition to Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, scheduled to take effect July 1. “As Indiana, Arkansas and states around the country enact and consider legislation that perpetuates discrimination, we’re urging state legislatures to stand up for equality by repealing and voting against these discriminatory laws,” the two stated. “These new laws and legislation that allow people and businesses to deny service to people based on their sexual orientation turn back the clock on equality and foster a culture of intolerance.” The heads of the two San Francisco-based firms noted such laws “are unquestionably bad for business, but more importantly, they are fundamentally wrong. They must be stopped.”

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