Gov. Pat McCrory
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory has signed an anti-LGBT bill into law that goes farther than Indiana’s reviled so-called religious freedom law. The Indiana law has already cost the state millions in business.
The new N.C. law invalidates Charlotte’s recently pass equal rights ordinance. It also requires transgender people to use the bathroom of the sex they were assigned at birth. That means men with beards will be using ladies rooms, if they obey this law.
According to the Charlotte Observer, private businesses across the state may now deny service or fire anyone who LGBT. The law also prevents cities from enacting local minimum wage laws.
North Carolina’s Democratic attorney general, Roy Cooper, has called the law discriminatory and shameful.
The bill’s Republican sponsor said Charlotte’s new ordinance prompted the statewide legislation. He said some cities have created a variety of new classes that have become burdensome on business. But cities like Dallas, that has protections now written into the city charter, have had few discrimination complaints.
The NCAA said it’s taking the law into consideration as it schedules events and may move scheduled 2017 and 2018 basketball tournaments elsewhere. American Airlines’ second largest hub is in Charlotte and representatives of the company spoke out against the law. PayPal was scheduled to announce 400 new jobs in Charlotte but that’s now on hold.
Georgia has a similar bill sitting on Gov. Nathan Deal’s desk. He hasn’t decided whether to sign or veto. In that state, the NFL has threatened to withhold consideration of a Super Bowl in Atlanta if it becomes law, and Walt Disney Company threatened to stop film production in the state if the governor signs the bill.
