At this week's Moral Monday rally in Sylva, North Carolina, Rev. William Barber of the state NAACP addressed the mass shooting that took place a day earlier at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, Florida. He called out political leaders who foment hate and called on people to keep the faith that love is greater.
In a recent National Public Radio interview, the businessman and conservative mega-donor denied funding anti-LGBT rights groups that support North Carolina's "bathroom bill." But the record clearly shows he has.
A report released this week sheds light on the potential costs to North Carolina of its controversial new law requiring transgender people to use public bathrooms that correspond to the gender on their birth certificate and nullifying local anti-discrimination and minimum-wage ordinances.
Announcing the U.S. Justice Department would sue North Carolina over its anti-transgender "bathroom bill," Attorney General Loretta Lynch noted there's historically been backlash to equality gains. What's been happening in Southern legislatures since the Supreme Court struck down marriage discrimination last year bears that out.
Where does North Carolina's leading conservative donor stand on the state's so-called "bathroom bill"? Art Pope hasn't publicly stated his position on HB2, but he has a long history of funding groups and politicians that support the law, which the Justice Department says illegally discriminates against transgender people.
The HB2 boycott is disrupting business as usual and changing the political debate in the state, just as boycotts should. What will it take for the campaign to succeed in the long run?
At least 24 companies publicly opposing Mississippi's law allowing discrimination against LGBT people have helped finance the election of the law's sponsors and the governor who signed it. A similar pattern held in North Carolina, which is embroiled in controversy over its own anti-LGBT law.
Gov. Phil Bryant's decision to sign into law the "Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act" has nothing to do with freedom or conscience and everything to do with discrimination.
Over 120 companies are speaking out against North Carolina's controversial new law striking down local anti-discrimination ordinances. But many of these same companies have donated considerable sums to outside political groups that helped elect state lawmakers who sponsored and voted for the legislation.
A by-the-numbers look at how businesses in North Carolina and elsewhere across the South are opposing discrimination and intolerance against LGBT people and other vulnerable minorities.
