Top Oil Companies Join Firms Opposing Texas ‘Bathroom Bill’

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — More than 50 Houston business leaders, including the heads of some of the nation's top oil companies, are opposing a Texas "bathroom bill" targeting transgender people — adding to an already long list of powerful and lucrative firms opposing it.

In a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday, the leaders wrote that they support "diversity and inclusion" and that "any such bill risks harming Texas' reputation and impacting the state's economic growth." Its signers included executives from Chevron, Shell, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil.

Abbott has called state lawmakers into a special legislative session after a bill requiring transgender Texans to use public restrooms corresponding to the gender on their birth certificates failed in May.

Apple, IBM, Facebook, the NFL and scores of other companies have previously opposed the bill.