Tech giants join rebuke of law blocking LGBT rights
THE NEWS & OBSERVER VIA AP
Duke student Sydney Roberts shouts during a protest against House Bill 2 on Thursday outside of the Governor’s Mansion on North Blount Street in downtown Raleigh, N.C.
THE NEWS & OBSERVER VIA AP
People protest outside the North Carolina Executive Mansion in Raleigh, N.C. on Thursday.
RALEIGH, N.C. » Technology giants Apple, Google and Facebook are among a dozen big companies or their top executives objecting to a North Carolina law that bars municipalities from adopting their own anti-discrimination ordinances.
Facebook, Google and Apple each run massive data-processing complexes in western North Carolina. They joined American Airlines, IBM and others in reacting to a state law quickly adopted Wednesday that blocked local government measures to counter discrimination against gay, lesbian and transgender people.
None of the high-profile companies have threatened to immediately withdraw business from North Carolina.
San Francisco’s mayor on Friday banned city workers from non-essential travel to North Carolina. The city, which has a large gay and lesbian population, “will not subsidize legally sanctioned discrimination,” Mayor Ed Lee said in a statement.
The Charlotte ordinance would have enabled transgender people to legally use restrooms aligned with their gender identity, and would have provided broad protections against discrimination in public accommodations in the state’s largest city.
North Carolina is the first state to require public school and university students to use only those bathrooms that match their birth certificates, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures.
Advocates for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights say state legislators demonized them with bogus claims about bathroom risks. Supporters say the new law protects all people from having to share bathrooms with people who make them feel unsafe.
Corporations announcing their displeasure “are shamefully bullying” state officials while many small business owners who live in North Carolina support the new legislation, North Carolina Values Coalition Executive Director Tami Fitzgerald said.
“North Carolinians should be aware of this so they have the opportunities to be consumers of companies that are congruent with their values,” Fitzgerald said in a statement.
Other businesses have voiced support for the measure Republican Gov. Pat McCrory signed into law, a spokesman for his re-election campaign said. Spokesman Ricky Diaz did not respond when asked which businesses backed the governor’s decision.
Attorney General Roy Cooper, a Democrat challenging McCrory this fall, opposes the law. He said Friday he’s worried actions by the GOP-led legislature and the governor could harm the state’s chances to land or keep sporting events such as the NCAA basketball tournament and the NBA All-Star Game in Charlotte in 2017. Both organizations released statements about the law on Thursday, but stopped short of saying they would not hold the events in the city.
“Not only is it wrong to discriminate, but we should not be putting our economy in jeopardy,” Cooper told 99.9 The Fan, a Raleigh-area radio station, calling the actions creating the law “a national embarrassment.”
McCrory and his allies have blamed Cooper for failing to intervene before the General Assembly did to stop Charlotte’s ordinance. McCrory said Thursday that Cooper has “lost touch” with the privacy norms the public expects while using a restroom or locker room.
About 200 protesters blocked a downtown Raleigh street in front of the state’s Executive Mansion on Thursday evening. Police said in a statement that five people were arrested after they sat down in the street and refused orders to disperse.
McCrory, a former Charlotte mayor, stays in the mansion while in the state capital but was not there at the time of the protest, spokesman Josh Ellis said.
5 responses to “Tech giants join rebuke of law blocking LGBT rights”
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Republicans simply cannot govern. Here’s another Republican state legislature and governor , grasping and clawing onto its hate and bigotry. Businesses who must compete for the best talent want and need LGBT people in their candidate, and these Republicans – stuck in the 1950’s – can’t understand basic facts. It’s disgusting. “I love the poorly educated!” Go Trump!
North Carolina is the first state to require public school and university students to use only those bathrooms that match their birth certificates, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures. If they don’t like it then move to San Fran.
Companies are going to move, along with sports events. Legislatures can be ignorant and bigoted (there’s a reason this was rammed through with no public notice) but it’s going to hurt in their wallets. Companies and leagues aren’t going to take it anymore. It’s not 1950, as much as you want it to be.
Our rep here in Mililani, Beth Fukumoto-Chang, would fit right in with that crowd. Hope she packs her suitcases and moves there.
How can San Francisco’s mayor ban city workers from non-essential travel to North Carolina? If he’s referring to city workers traveling to NC on official city business and therefore on the city’s dime, then why would these workers be going unless it’s “essential” in the first place? It’s doubtful Frisco is rolling in so much dough that they can dispatch people to other states willy-nilly for no good reason. If the mayor means to somehow ban city workers from traveling to NC on personal business using their own funds, then something very, very disturbing is taking place in San Francisco.