NC hammered with backlash over anti-gay law

March 26, 201607:12

The North Carolina conservative, who also happens to be up for re-election, still doesn't seem to fully appreciate what he's done. It's bad enough that McCrory isn't fully aware of what his new law actually does, but it's nearly as problematic that he doesn't appreciate the impact his policy is having on his state. WRAL in Raleigh reported this morning:

PayPal, an online money transfer service, has canceled its plans to open an operations center in Charlotte, citing North Carolina's new anti-discrimination law. The company announced plans on March 18 to open its new global operations center that would have employed 400 people. Five days later, Gov. Pat McCrory signed into law House Bill 2, which barred transgender people from using the public bathroom of the gender with which they identify.

The PayPal news comes on the heels of a similar announcement from Lionsgate Films, which had planned to film a new comedy in North Carolina, but changed its mind in response to HB 2.

State Attorney General Roy Cooper (D), McCrory's likely opponent in November, said in a statement today, "The threat that HB2 poses to jobs and our economy is no longer a possibility. It's a reality. These are new, better-paying jobs North Carolina won't get because Governor McCrory has put his political ideology above all else. It's time to reverse course and take actions to undo the damage."

And what about the businesses that support the anti-LGBT law? The Greensboro News & Record noted last week. "McCrory has claimed that a large number of businesses supported the law, but his office has not listed those companies despite many media requests."

The same report included this gem:

NC Values Coalition, which urged passage of the law, claimed in a Tuesday news release that it had a list of more than 300 North Carolina businesses which had pledged support for HB 2. Claiming that most businesses feared retaliation if their support was made public, the group released a list of 17 companies it said had agreed to openly support the law. But the largest and most influential of the companies on that list -- HanesBrands of Winston-Salem -- said it doesn't support the law and asked to be removed. [...] When asked about the veracity of the rest of the list, [NC Values Coalition spokeswoman Kami Mueller] clarified that it actually represents more than 300 individuals, not businesses.... When asked if there was a chance that other people on the list might not be authorized to represent their companies, Mueller said: "There's a chance of everything. There's a chance I could get hit by a bus."

At least for now, there's been no indication that McCrory or the Republican-led legislature are reconsidering their controversial measure, though if their strategy is to simply wait for the controversy to fade away, the plan isn't working out well so far.