On September 26, a coalition led by Out Leadership member company Trillium Asset Management, supported by Out Leadership, the Croatan Institute, and the NYC Comptroller’s office delivered a letter to Governor Pat McCrory of North Carolina, announcing the opposition of investment firms managing more than $2.1 trillion in assets to the state’s discriminatory HB2.
Out Leadership founder and principal Todd Sears was interviewed by North Carolina Policy Watch about the letter, which comes after Moodys and S&P have publicly noted that they will look into the AAA loan rating North Carolina currently holds. Already, over 160 CEOs have spoken out against HB2, with companies like Deutsche Bank and Paypal cancelling expansion plans. The bill has already cost cost the state an estimated $395 million, Sears noted.
Sears also mentions the toll that the bill has taken on the people of North Carolina, arguing that this bill will be hard for many of the state’s most vulnerable citizens, including transgender youth, to forget. Calls to transgender suicide hotlines have doubled since the passing of HB2.
As a native North Carolinian, Sears is hopeful this will be a wake-up call for Governor McCrory. “This is not the North Carolina I know.”