Anti-LGBT Law Forces Family Group to Cancel North Carolina Event Over Safety Concerns

Family Equality Council Says It Will Not Hold Its Scheduled ‘Family Week’ in North Carolina Now That HB2 Is Law

Gov. Pat McCrory‘s anti-LGBT law has chased another group out of state. The Family Equality Council, an LGBT civil rights group, says they have canceled Family Week in North Carolina over “safety, security and dignity” concerns. 

“Given the hostile climate under this new law, we could not guarantee the safety of our families as they traveled to and from our event,” Family Equality Council’s Emily Hecht-McGowan told BuzzFeed News in a statement.

Worried about putting “our children in harm’s way,” Hecht-McGowan told Buzzfeed the group is “committed to serving our families in the South, but we also need to be reasonably confident that we don’t put their safety, security and dignity at risk.”

The event was scheduled for June.

Gov. McCrory’s law, HB2, voids all local LGBT nondiscrimination ordinances, and mandates transgender people can use only public restrooms that correspond to their birth certificates, not their gender identity. It also strips local control over minimum wage and employment discrimination ordinances, handing control of them over to state lawmakers.

Buzzfeed’s Dominic Holden reports the FEC’s “June gathering was to be the group’s inaugural event in North Carolina, modeled after Family Weekend in the Midwest, Gay Days at Anaheim, and Family Week in Ptown.”

 

EARLIER:

NC GOP Lawmaker Who Wrote Anti-LGBT Bill Blames Charlotte Mayor For PayPal Canceling 400 New Jobs

One Day After Gov. McCrory Signed Anti-LGBT Law Top Studio Moved 100 North Carolina Jobs to Canada

CEO of $63 Billion Pepsi Writes Letter to NC Gov. Pat McCrory Asking For Repeal of Anti-LGBT Law HB2

 

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