Richard Socarides, Head of Public Affairs at GLG and member of Out Leadership’s Leadership Committee, published a piece on Monday in The New Yorker on the backlash against LGBT rights that has followed the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision.
In the last weeks, the state legislatures in Georgia and North Carolina both passed bills aimed at preventing LGBT people from being fully protected by state or municipal nondiscrimination laws. However, Gov. Nathan Deal of Georgia and Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina, both Republicans, took sharply diverging paths when the bills landed on their desks. Deal issued a veto, while McCrory signed the North Carolina legislation into law within a matter of hours.
Socarides: “The substantial opposition of Georgia’s influential business community, including sports franchises and the entertainment industry, likely played a significant role in Deal’s decision to veto his state’s bill.” Unfortunately, the speed with which the North Carolina General Assembly and McCrory acted (the bill was introduced and signed within 12 hours), prevented community and business leaders from organizing and making their voices heard.