North Carolina says it will defy Justice Department over LGBT law: 'We're not going to get bullied'; Los Angeles Times, 5/5/16

Jenny Jarvie, Los Angeles Times; North Carolina says it will defy Justice Department over LGBT law: 'We're not going to get bullied' :

"A political showdown between North Carolina and the federal government loomed Thursday as Republican state leaders vowed to defy the U.S. Justice Department’s deadline to repeal the state’s contentious new bathroom law.

The Justice Department notified Gov. Pat McCrory in a letter Wednesday that the state’s House Bill 2, which restricts transgender bathroom access and has become a focus in the LGBT rights fight, violates sections of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. It gave the state until Monday to “remedy” the violations.

On Thursday, North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore said legislators would not meet the federal government’s deadline.

“We will take no action by Monday,” Moore told reporters in a video broadcast by the Raleigh News & Observer. “That deadline will come and go. Obviously, we don’t ever want to lose any money, but we’re not going to get bullied by the Obama administration to take action prior to Monday’s date. That’s not how this works.”"

80 Big-Name Business Leaders Just Took A Stand Against North Carolina’s Anti-LGBT Law; Huffington Post, 3/29/16

Elise Foley, Huffington Post; 80 Big-Name Business Leaders Just Took A Stand Against North Carolina’s Anti-LGBT Law:

"The fight against North Carolina’s new anti-LGBT law gained some high-profile support on Tuesday, when more than 80 prominent business leaders signed a letter calling for a full repeal.

“Discrimination is wrong, and we believe it has no place in North Carolina or anywhere in our country,” reads the letter to North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R), released by LGBT civil rights groups Human Rights Campaign and Equality NC. “As companies that pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming to all, we strongly urge you and the leadership of North Carolina’s legislature to repeal this law in the upcoming legislative session.”

The legislation, which McCrory signed into law last week, prevents local governments from creating their own rules and ordinances to protect LGBT rights. The governor on Monday dismissed backlash against the legislation as “well-coordinated and more political theater than reality.”

Pressure from corporations has worked before in other states, and the letter made the same arguments that discrimination is bad for business.

Most of the signatories lead companies that aren’t headquartered in North Carolina, but it’s a high-profile list, including the heads of Apple, Facebook, Airbnb, Yahoo, Twitter, Salesforce, Marriott, Pfizer and Levi Strauss. Bank of America, the largest corporation in the state by revenue, was left out of the original letter, but announced later on Tuesday that it had signed the letter."

How North Carolina Just Passed a Blood-Curdling Anti-LGBT Law Right Before Our Eyes; Huffington Post, 3/24/16

Michelangelo Signorile, Huffington Post; How North Carolina Just Passed a Blood-Curdling Anti-LGBT Law Right Before Our Eyes:

"For over a year, long before the Obergefell marriage equality ruling, many warned that the backlash to LGBT equality would be ugly and intense, and that too many LGBT leaders and much of the media weren’t paying attention, caught up in the wins — what I’ve dubbed victory blindness.

The cost, it was noted, would be the stripping of LGBT rights under the radar, with little focus on our issues. Lo and behold, while LGBT rights were front and center for several years and at the forefront of the 2012 presidential election, there’s been hardly any discussion of the issues in the current election campaign, even as anti-LGBT forces in the states, in the GOP leadership, and in Congress have been in overdrive...

The speed with which a horrifically anti-LGBT bill passed the North Carolina legislature was sickening. Within hours of of being introduced in the legislature and getting overwhelming support, a sweeping bill which overturned existing ordinances protecting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in cities and counties across the state — and which banned transgender people from using restrooms that correspond with their gender identity — was signed by the GOP governor, Pat McCrory.

HB2 is the most heinous, homophobic, transphobic law we have ever seen — just read it."