Big Business Turns Up Heat On North Carolina

The New York Times reports:

The onslaught of criticism, economic sanctions and a lawsuit being leveled at Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina grew on Tuesday, as the largest corporation in his state joined the fight against a new law that eliminated anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Bank of America, which has its headquarters in Charlotte, N.C., announced late Tuesday on Twitter that its leadership was joining over 80 chief executives, including Timothy D. Cook of Apple and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, in objecting to the new law. Earlier in the day, the chief executives published a letter, addressed to Mr. McCrory, on the Human Rights Campaign website, saying, “Such laws are bad for our employees and bad for business.”

Mr. McCrory defended his signature in a testy news conference on Monday, insisting that the new law did not take away existing protections. Fact-checkers at Raleigh’s WRAL-TV rated that statement false. Then on Tuesday, Mr. Cooper, a Democrat who plans to run for governor against Mr. McCrory this fall, held a news conference saying he refused to defend the new law in court, despite being named in the case. “Not only is this new law a national embarrassment, it will set North Carolina’s economy back,” he said.

Mr. McCrory accused Mr. Cooper and other critics, including the White House, of taking part in a “vicious nationwide smear campaign” against his state. In a video released by his press office on Tuesday, Mr. McCrory accused the critics of “disregarding the facts.”

The full list of companies is here.