Apple is an LGBT-friendly company that embraces all sorts of people as long as they are committed to excellence, so it’s bracing to see that they are urging the Supreme Court to support legalizing gay marriage.

In a coalition with Facebook, Intel, Nike, Oracle, Qualcomm, Morgan Stanley, dozens of Republicans, gay marriage advocates and almost sixty other companies, Apple is publically backing gay marriage, saying that the gay marriage bans in place in 41 states not only harm workplace morale, but makes it harder for them to recruit gay, lesbian and bisexual workers.

“No matter how welcoming the corporate culture, it cannot overcome the societal stigma institutionalized by Proposition 8 and similar laws,” the companies will argue.

The timing of the announcement is good. Next month, the Supreme Court will heart arguments on California’s Proposition 8, a ballot initiative that Apple publically opposed back in 2008 which ended up banning gay marriage in California after it had been allowed for five months.

The Supreme Court will also start hearing arguments next month regarding the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

Apple also wants Obama to speak out in favor of a constitutional right to marriage for all Americans to the partners of their choosing, according to Bloomberg:

President Barack Obama’s administration has until tomorrow to say whether it will join about 60 companies and a largely Republican group that includes six former governors in urging the court to back gay marriage nationwide. Obama “has not yet said there is a constitutional right to marry, but he has

been very careful not to say there isn’t,” said Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry, a New York- based national gay rights group. “The time for him to say it is is now.”

It’s nice to see Apple be so openly supportive of this issue, but I suppose it’s to be expected: after all, for decades, they openly wore rainbow stripes in their name.

Here’s the amicus brief that Apple and a number of other companies filed today.

Source: Bloomberg

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