Businesses Up The Pressure On NC Gov Over Anti-LGBT Law

Gov. Pat McCrory, speaks at Wilmington International Airport in Wilmington, N.C., Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014. The North Carolina Transportation Department said Tuesday that North Carolina is getting $6 million in fede... Gov. Pat McCrory, speaks at Wilmington International Airport in Wilmington, N.C., Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014. The North Carolina Transportation Department said Tuesday that North Carolina is getting $6 million in federal grants to improve train service. The Wilmington stop was one of several around the state on Wednesday introducing the "25-Year Vision for North Carolina" transportation plan. (AP Photo/The Star-News, Matt Born) LOCAL TELEVISION OUT; LOCAL INTERNET OUT MORE LESS
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Since North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory last week signed rushed legislation that keeps local governments from passing anti-discrimination measures that protect gay and transgender individuals, pressure from businesses has only increased.

Numerous companies including PayPal and Google were quick to denounce the law last week. On Tuesday, 80 executives signed a letter condemning the law, warning that it could “diminish the state’s draw as a destination for tourism, new businesses, and economic activity.” And on Thursday, 16 more executives signed the letter, including those from Reddit and CitiBank.

Both A&E and Fox told Variety on Wednesday that they may not film future projects in North Carolina due to the new law, though both will complete projects that already began filming in the state.

“Production on ‘Six’ is already under way, however we will not consider North Carolina for any new productions,” a spokesman for A&E told Variety in a statement.

“On behalf of our creative partners and colleagues who made commitments to shoot in North Carolina prior to this bill being signed, we join the growing coalition of businesses that hope to see this act repealed. In addition, we will reconsider future filming commitments in North Carolina if the Act is not repealed,” Fox said in a statement to Variety.

The executive committee of High Point Market has also said that customers have cancelled plans to attend its April furniture expo due to the passage of the new law in North Carolina.

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Notable Replies

  1. McCrory… manservant to the NC Tea Party and Social Conservatives… is in way over his head…

  2. Avatar for lew lew says:

    When you’ve ceded the high moral ground to corporations and businesses, you may want to reexamine your ethics and relevance…

  3. Avatar for meri meri says:

    If the businesses in NC had wanted to take action against this shitstain, they should have done it when he was running for office. But of course they wouldn’t want to do that. Supporting a Democrat? As if.

    No, they’d rather go the whole buyer’s remorse route rather than avoiding the screwup in the first place.

  4. Like I said elsewhere, he’ll blame the press, misunderstanding the purpose of the law, Hiillary made him do it, nasty liberals, dirty progressives, weak-kneed republicans…all but himself and his pubbie legislators!

  5. You’re trying to use the logic of business to force religious zealots to change their mind. These are two different worlds. They will not back down until a sizable number of them lose re-election. That is the only thing these people understand, is power. They lose power, they will change their ways. Until then, expect this to be pushed in every deep red state until it becomes too politically toxic to continue.

    Take Indiana for example. They got resoundingly destroyed in the business world and backed down. Yet other states are still not only pulling this crap, but worse, and under extremely shady circumstances. They are still winning elections.

    You want to criticize this decision, every business? Then stop donating to any campaign run by anyone who voted in favor for this law. Don’t threaten to take away tourism dollars. There are millions of redneck bigots in this country who will travel to NC specifically to spend money and shove it in your face. Look at Chick-Fil-A. But they won’t donate to re-election campaigns, so hit them where it hurts or sit down and save your profit-based arguments for the boardroom.

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