The controversy over Indiana’s new anti-gay law continues to grow. Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, said that his company was canceling all its programs in Indiana in response to Gov. Mike Pence (R) signing a new law that could allow businesses to discriminate against same-sex customers based on religious objections.
Today we are canceling all programs that require our customers/employees to travel to Indiana to face discrimination. http://t.co/SvTwyCHxvE
— Marc Benioff (@Benioff) March 26, 2015
Attention Tech CEOs/Industry: pay attn to what is happening in IN & how it will impact your employees & customers. http://t.co/SvTwyCZ8nc
— Marc Benioff (@Benioff) March 26, 2015
Calling other tech CEOs and tech industry leaders to please take a stand. http://t.co/Ghd7TcxfZf
— Marc Benioff (@Benioff) March 26, 2015
Pence signed the legislation on Thursday. A number of businesses warned that there could be blowback to the governor signing the legislation. Gen Con, a major table top gaming convention, threatened to pull its convention out but its contract isn’t up until 2020. Actor/activist George Takei, NBA star Jason Collins, and the Eli Lilly company, one of the state’s largest employers, have all spoken out against the law.
Salesforce is a cloud computing company which has headquarters in San Francisco. It acquired ExactTarget, an Indianapolis-based software company for $2.5 billion last year.
Salesforce Senior Director for Corporate Communications Gina Sheilbley told TPM it had no additional comments beyond what Benioff’s tweets.
This post was updated.
