North Carolina's HB-2, recently signed into law by Governor McCrory, is one of those "religious freedom" laws that religious conservatives are seeking in the backlash to the Supreme Court's legalizing marriage equality. Now the backlash to the backlash is bringing consequences to the state.
Gov. Nathan Deal's veto of a similar Georgia bill took our state out of the spotlight that was about to bring similar economic consequences to Georgia that North Carolina is experiencing. Here's some of what's happening there, which we are -- so far -- avoiding by the veto. But lawmakers are grumbling about bringing it back next year.
In North Carolina, Starbucks, Facebook, Apple, Citibank and dozens of other national corporations have signed a letter to the governor asking for a repeal of HB-2. PayPal has cancelled a planned expansion of an international operations center in Charlotte. Bruce Springsteen has cancelled a concert he was scheduled to give yesterday in Greensboro, NC.
Numerous cities, including Atlanta, New York, San Francisco, Boston, and others, have put a ban on any official travel to NC by their government employees. Research conferences may be cancelled.
Charles Barkley, a basketball legend, has called for the NBA to relocate the 2017 All-Star Game planned for Charlotte. The writer of the Broadway musical hit "Wicked" has said that he will refuse production rights to any of his plays in the state until the law is repealed.
Unfortunately, a lot of this is going to hurt the city of Charlotte, which had been leading in a positive direction with its local anti-discrimination ordinances, which HB-2 has now overturned. The city that should be praised is going to suffer the most (being the largest in the state and the most likely to have conventions and major sports events); but perhaps they will put extra pressure on the state to repeal the law.
Ralph
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