Teh gay. It’ll get you every time.
All of these announcements from the large multi-nation companies are nice, actually great – but they mean nothing if you don’t put your money where your mouth is. Take action.
Either NC will retract this legislation, or the Courts will do it for them.
The NFL made it very plain to Jan Brewer that Arizona would lose their previously awarded Super Bowl host gig if she signed their version of a LGBT hate law. She vetoed it. I’m hopeful should Nathan Deal sign the similar Georgia law the same will happen to Atlanta’s event. They just built a new stadium and it’s become somewhat of a ritual to feature these gleaming billion dollar venues at the first open opportunity to do so. Losing a Super Bowl hits a state and city where it counts, in the wallet. Toss in the lost lingering prestige hosting it bestows, and the shame and scorn at being pig-headed enough to lose it, and you have a state ripe for political recriminations. You’ve maybe even pissed off enough people to flip a legislature or governorship.
We can also vote with our dollars and hit them where it hurts:
When we travel in the states, we try hard and avoid staying in states that discriminate against minorities and that rule over women and their bodies: North Carolina and Indiana are 2 of the top states that we avoid. We also don’t buy product over the web that come from companies in these states…we will stop buying from Soccer.com as one example because they are based in NC.
Clearly these states with Republican Governors are taking their orders from the Nazi Koch Brothers…they have a well organized strategy to divide the populous and to cause us to hate each other. If the populous ever becomes a homogeneous group in the US, the Koch’s and Buffet and the other robber barons will finally be put in their proper place just like we did to the robber barons in the gilded age.
These are corporations that have already extended equality to their employees and their families. The anti-GLBT laws ALEC dominated legislatures pass make it a problem for those businesses to operate under the regressive legislation so dear to the hearts of Republicans. Stupid stupid stupid.
Whuyyy, when will you gawdluss libruls stop oppressin’ awr Judeo-Chrisitan raht to awr religis freedumb to hate us sum quaars? Y’all kin have yer NBA and all those uppity Negroes. We’z got us the NRA and NASCAR and Gawd is wheyyyy more pahrfull than that there Google thing. Whooooeeee! Rebel flag, now, y’hear?
Unfortunately taking such a stance on travel for pleasure or business requires one to avoid just about everything south of the Mason-Dixon (and your aforementioned Indiana, which in truth should be annexed and renamed Norther Kentucky). Then you need to toss in a few retrograde states like OK, KS, AZ and MO. There really is a strong case to be made that for long term harmony and survival of the democracy the founders created that the nation should be split in two, basically along the geographic fault lines Lincoln so tragically kept stitched together. I mean seriously, is there any reason for a civilized country to have entities such as Louisiana or Tennessee in its midst?
Republicans are the first to cry “states’ rights! states’ rights!” with the central theme of their argument being their disdain for a far-off central government ordering their citizens around “telling us how to live” – yet, they are the first ones to sign into law legislation designed to “tell other municipalities how to live.” Their cries and arguments ring hollow when they pull stunts like this.
“NBA, Businesses, Human Beings, Denounce North Carolina Anti-Gay Bill.”
*fixed.
NPR conducted a very insightful interview a couple days ago with a political scientist studying these initiatives. He pointed out it’s more of a city vs rural friction. Houston, Atlanta and Charlotte all have Democrat mayors. These are all very large cities embroiled in fights to recognize the rights of LGBT citizens. Their state’s legislatures are Red. Republican pols show every bit the petty motivations to punish and belittle adversaries as you see in Donald Trump’s treatment of people he opposes. Republican representatives can’t stand for individual cities to act in a manner they disagree with, especially when those cities have Democrat mayors. Passing these laws is a twofer. They punish gay/trans people and “city-slicker” Democrats.
Hollow indeed. I talked with a guy yesterday at the dog park who had brought his Australian Shepherd puppy home and come back from work to find the pupster had torn up the sofa. He naturally put the stuffing back and stapled the fabric together so his wife would not know. And it looked pretty good considering he did not use duct tape. But while they were watching the news, she heard their cat. Said cat was inside the sofa. Busted! You never know what a cat will do. Republicans are much more predictable.
When any legislative body must do its business via dark of night and special sessions you can place bets that a minority is about to be pissed and shat upon.
I’m 70 and when I was in grade school, in PA, we had communal facilities and no one made a big deal about sharing. I for one never thought about it until high school where we had separate, now that was weird. All these new laws in example GA, NC, IN and coming to TN are just to reinforce “different”, therefore we’ll allow bigotry and discrimination, now don’t we all feel good and self-righteous about ourselves…
Yet another example of the media, and Democrat opposition, utterly failing to address an issue in a way that exposes proponents for the craven opportunists and alarmists they are. Has anyone viewed an interview with a representative sponsoring such a trans bathroom inspired bill? Has anyone asked for a compilation of the number of harassments, molestations or rapes occurring in women’s restrooms that were perpetrated by trans men, or men falsely adopting a trans identity as subterfuge to facilitate such crimes? What would that number be, maybe, um…zero? Why the hell isn’t this particular point pressed with those writing and voting on these bills? Why doesn’t the media frame the ridiculousness of these laws by asking that question?
ISIS: We stand with NC. Freedom to be a bigot is a right given to us by Allah.
Literally LOL. Thank you for helping brighten my morning. Yeah, cats are totally unpredictable sometimes. That story reminds me of what happened to my Mom’s friend’s cat. When I was a little kid, maybe 8 or so, a friend hosted a sleepover for us boys. The next morning, before breakfast my friend’s mother asked me to help straighten up the rec room where we all slept. My job was to strip the roll-out and fold it back up into the couch. Well, I did – only I also rolled up the cat into the couch. We didn’t find this out until hours later when we came back in to play board games. Their kitty was indoor-outdoor, so it didn’t seem odd that she hadn’t been seen around. She must have enjoyed being in a hiding place because she didn’t meow when the whole time we were in the rec room making lots of noise and playing our games. Finally, one of the boys couldn’t find his watch and we eventually decided to unroll the bad. As we did, out jumps kitty. Scared the shit out of us. Two of us (yes, I was one of the two) screeched the way only young boys who haven’t quite hit puberty can do, which made us all died laughing. Your story is much funnier, though!
Good. I’m in NC and I hope people boycott the f*ck out of us.
Boycott and support candidates seeking to oust these bigoted, misogynistic, racist Tea Party zealots.
There’s also a big movie/TV production center based in Wilmington. They’ve filmed everything from Dawson’s Creek to Iron Man 3 down there. I’d imagine they’re none too pleased about this little stunt.
So true. The GOPers recently tried to pull that stunt in Virginia with Confederate statues and memorials. They tried to pass a law making it illegal for localities to remove them. The Gov vetoed it of course and there is not enough GOPer support to override it. But this classic example of GOP hypocrisy and racism was completely ignored by media outside of Virginia. Another example of the national media’s tacit approval by failure to address racism. Because…“They’re our GOP buddies! More important than racism which is just a political thing, don’t ya know?”.