The summer tourist season is getting ready to kick off and it looks like North Carolina and Mississippi are going to miss out on a big chuck of change because its politicians including N.C. Governor Pat McCrory and Miss. Governor Phil Bryant are stupid partisan hacks.
These two states are seeing massive consumer backlash after passing terrible legislation that openly discriminates against the Lesbian Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) community.
While the Mississippi law is the most dangerous as it actually lets businesses refuse to provide services to LGBT people based on religious grounds – it is the N.C. law that is attracting the most attention. Probably because it is the dumbest of the two.
In N.C. it now law that you must use the bathroom that corresponds to the gender on your birth certificate. I have only two questions regarding this asinine law: Who the hell carries their birth certificate with them to the bathroom and how will this law be enforced?
Is North Carolina going to hire bathroom monitors to inspect everyone before they can relieve themselves?
There is good and bad news to this story. The good news is that people and corporations are pushing back against these laws in the best way possible. They are voting with their pocket book.
The biggest impact was that as soon as McCrory signed the legislation, Paypal announced that it would not build its global operational center in Charlotte. The state lost 400 jobs with one swoop of the pen.
But that was only the start. High profile musicians like Bruce Springsteen, Bryan Adams and Perl Jam have cancelled concerts in both States. Other performers are still holding concerns but donating money to LGBT charities.
And the dollars keep adding up.
According to tourism agencies, Raleigh and the surrounding area has already lost more than $2 million in business. That includes $1.7 million lost as the Community Transportation Association of America cancelled its conference
Other news agencies have put the price tag for cancelled events at $3.5 million.
The National Basketball Association could also be looking to move the 2017 All-Star weekend out of the state is the legislation is still on the books.
According to the NBA when New Orleans was the All-Star Host it saw an economic impact of more than $106 million. It was estimated that visitors spent an average of $904 during the three-day event.
So the good news is that corporations and people are fighting back against these stupid laws but the bad news is that real people are going to get hurt while politicians refuse to admit that they are wrong.
There is the obvious LGBT people who are discriminated against but what about the people who work in the service sector who just want to earn a paycheck and live their lives. With fewer tourists in the state, stores and hotels and restaurants won’t need to hire as many employees.
How many business will go out of business because they lost revenue during what is supposed to be the busiest time of the year?
We already know that at least 400 people in North Carolina won’t get a job because of the legislation and yet the politicians don’t see anything wrong with what they have done.
Unless McCrory and Bryant apologizes for being an idiots and repeal there stupid laws, things are going to get much worse and in the end everyone will suffer and it won’t matter what bathroom you use.
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