Gov. Phil Bryant
The discrimination law Mississippi passed and Gov. Phil Bryant signed into law this week is more draconian than the North Carolina law. There’s also less businesses and people in other states can do.
North Carolina is headquarters for a number of prominent businesses. Bank of America, the country’s largest bank, is based there. Charlotte is American Airline’s largest hub.
But Mississippi? New York’s governor banned official state travel to Mississippi by New York state employees. Nice gesture, but why would anyone from New York be traveling to Tupelo. They’re not. And businesses? Nissan and Ashley Furniture. That’s about it. Nissan manufactures there and Ashley, well, if that’s where you buy your furniture, please return your gay card. A boycott won’t be effective. Number 3: Choctaw Indians. They run casinos across the state. Boycotting Native Americans won’t exactly hurt the bigoted white guys that passed this law.
But for the LGBT community, the new law will cause a number of problems. It allows county clerks to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples without offering alternatives. While no state law protects against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, this law reinforces companies’ ability to fire at will.
Lambda Legal has come out with some guidance to help the state’s LGBT community navigate the legal waters. They discuss whether you can still get married in the state to what to do if your health-care provider decides to stop providing hormone therapy.
A more helpful approach might have been this:
Step 1: Call U-Haul.
Step 2: Get the hell out of that hell hole.
