AUSTIN — The CEOs of 14 top companies, including Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon, have sent a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott urging him not to pass discriminatory legislation.

"As large employers in the state, we are gravely concerned that any such legislation would deeply tarnish Texas' reputation as open and friendly to businesses and families," the CEOs wrote Abbott in a letter dated May 27. "Our ability to attract, recruit and retain top talent, encourage new business relocations, expansions and investment, and maintain our economic competitiveness would all be negatively affected.

"Discrimination is wrong and it has no place in Texas or anywhere in our country."

In addition to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Apple CEO Tim Cook, the letter was signed by Amazon CEO Jeff Wilke, IBM Chairman Ginni Rometty, Microsoft Corp. President Brad Smith and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. The leaders of Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Cisco, Silicon Labs, Celanese Corp., GSD&M, Salesforce and Gearbox Software also signed the letter.

"We strongly urge you and the Texas Legislature not to further pursue legislation of this kind," they added.

The letter, which has not been made public but was released to The Dallas Morning News, was sent just days before state lawmakers were scheduled to gavel out the 2017 regular legislative session. The year's most controversial and divisive issue has been a Senate proposal to block transgender Texans from using restrooms that match their gender identities.

Abbott has urged lawmakers to find a compromise on this issue before they're scheduled to go home on Tuesday, but the Republican leaders of the House and Senate have been at loggerheads over the issue for months.

The disagreement reached a head Friday, with House Speaker Joe Straus refusing to pass legislation he said could harm "some very vulnerable young Texans." Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who heads the Senate, then asked Abbott to make lawmakers stay until they passed a so-called bathroom bill.

Abbott has been relatively silent on the details of what he'd like to see in the bill. Business groups have openly objected to this and other legislation that they say would hurt Texas' lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, but the opposition has done little to thwart Patrick's efforts.