WASHINGTON – Friday, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Equality NC announced that executives from Hyatt, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Northrop Grumman, American Apparel, Qualcomm, Twilio, Udacity, Pandora Media, and EMC Corporation have signed onto an open letter that now includes more than 120 leading CEOs and business leaders calling on Gov. Pat McCrory and the North Carolina General Assembly to repeal the radical provisions in the deeply discriminatory law that was rammed through the legislature last week.
The letter — signed by dozens of CEOs from across the nation — was first made public Tuesday afternoon, and came only a day after Georgia Governor Nathan Deal announced he would veto anti-LGBT legislation in Georgia after facing a sustained outcry from a broad chorus of advocates and companies. A copy of the updated letter and its signatories can be found here .
On Monday, Gov. McCrory unbelievably claimed, “We have not taken away any rights that have currently existed in any city in North Carolina” — but PolitiFact rated that claim as false. H.B. 2 has eliminated existing municipal non-discrimination protections for LGBT people and prevents such protections from being passed by cities in the future. The legislation also forces transgender students in public schools to use restrooms and other facilities inconsistent with their gender identity, putting 4.5 billion dollars in federal funding under Title IX at risk. It also compels the same type of discrimination against transgender people to take place in state buildings, including in public universities. Lawmakers passed the legislation in a hurried, single-day session last Wednesday, and Gov. McCrory quickly signed it into law in the dead of night.
Excellent news! Hopefully Governor McCrory will see the light and veto this anti-LGBT discriminatory bill which is harmful to all of the citizens of North Carolina and their economy..