Sanderson Farms, Inc. the second largest industrial manufacturing company in Mississippi and a Fortune 1000 company, publicly stated it is against Mississippi’s Religious Liberty Accommodations Act or House Bill 1523 . Sanderson Farms, which is headquartered in Laurel, is one of 11 prominent Mississippi businesses and individuals included in a brief filed with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans arguing “HB 1523 not only demeans and discriminates against” Mississippi’s gay, lesbian and transgender population, but “stigmatizes the entire state and will cause lasting harm to Mississippi’s economy – driving down the state’s GDP, deterring business development and expansion, and costing the state jobs.”