Anti-Gay Law To Cost Raleigh NC $24 million

Something between 3-5% of Americans are LGBT. Getting hard numbers on that is difficult because of the fear of persecution.

However, the majority of Americans just can’t swallow the idea of laws persecuting LGBT people. Which means that in the states which have passed so called “religious freedom” laws, there may be significant economic consequences. Many of these states, located in the Bible belted Red Zone, are states which are poor to being with, get far more in tax benefits and monies from the Federal Government than they pay out, and are desperately trying to get corporations to move facilities into their states to improve the economy.

Shit like re-segregating is going to blunt, if not derail that economic growth as company after company either refuses to go there, or pulls out.

And we are not even talking about the pullout of Federal funding…Yet.

Tourism board: Raleigh set to lose $24 million thanks to GOP’s anti-trans bathroom law

A report released by the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau this week found that the local economy has already lost out on hundreds of thousands of dollars due to North Carolina’s HB2 bathroom law.

After Gov. Pat McCrory (R) signed the law on March 24 to prevent cities like Charlotte from granting bathroom rights to transgender people, companies like PayPal announced plans to move jobs out of state.

On Monday, a report from Wake County’s tourism agency said that the Raleigh area had already lost $732,000 in economic benefits, citing numerous cancellations of conferences and events, The News & Observer reported.

The Raleigh Visitors Bureau warned that the local economy could lose out on $24 million in economic benefits if the law is not repealed. According to the report, 16 other groups were considering relocating their events outside the state.

The city’s biggest loss could be a four-year contract for an undisclosed sports tournament that would have brought 51,000 people and $4.5 million in benefits to the area each year.

“We just felt that it’s not in the best interest of our membership to go someplace that’s not inclusive,” Johnstone Supply spokesperson Janet Tipton told The News & Observer.

This just in –

Deutsche Bank Won’t Expand In North Carolina Because Of Anti-LGBT Law

It will keep the 900 jobs already in the state, but won’t add the 250 more it had planned on.

Add Deutsche Bank to the list of corporations putting pressure on North Carolina politicians to back away from encouraging LGBT discrimination.

The bank announced on Tuesday that it’s freezing its plans to add 250 jobs at its software development center in Cary, North Carolina, as a result of the anti-LGBT law the state legislature passed in late March.

“We take our commitment to building inclusive work environments seriously,” Deutsche Bank’s co-CEO John Cryan said in a statement.

The German bank currently has about 900 employees at its office in Cary. It doesn’t plan to move the jobs already located there, but says it won’t include North Carolina in its expansion plans through 2017, as it had originally announced back in September.