So here’s the latest, as of April 17:
The city council in Los Angeles just voted unanimously to ban publicly-funded employee travel to North Carolina, in protest against House Bill 2. So you can add LA to that rapidly-growing list.
(Hey, remember back in 2014 when Chapel Hill hosted the Mayors Innovation Project? A hundred mayors from all over the country coming here to see how cool Chapel Hill is? Yeah, those days are oooooover.)
Meanwhile: HB2 supporters breathed a mini-sigh of relief on Friday when NBA Commissioner Adam Silver appeared to announce they weren’t going to move next year’s All-Star Game out of Charlotte after all. But then the NBA released a statement clarifying: no, they haven’t actually decided not to move the All-Star Game – they just haven’t yet decided to move it.
“At no time did Adam affirm that the league would not move the All-Star Game; rather he stressed repeatedly that the legislation is problematic, that we feel it is best to engage with the community to work towards a solution, that change is needed and we are hopeful that it will occur.”
(Nothing against the NBA, but it’s probably a good sign you’ve taken your homophobia too far when even the pro sports leagues aren’t sure they want anything to do with you.)
And now we can add Duran Duran to the list of entertainers who have issued statements publicly bashing North Carolina. Duran Duran is taking the Mumford & Sons route instead of the Springsteen route – rather than canceling their show outright, they’re going to use it to raise awareness and funds for Equality NC. In a statement, the band denounced House Bill 2 as “outdated and cruel.”
(Nothing against Simon LeBon, but it’s probably a good sign you’re behind the times when you get called “outdated” by Duran Duran.)
Ye gods, it’s getting hard to keep up with it all, isn’t it? Ever since HB2 passed, it’s been one after another after another. You no sooner hear about PayPal when you get a tweet from Deutsche Bank. You can’t dwell on Dayton, Ohio, because now Salt Lake City is weighing in. You’re just about to get your Springsteen refund, and suddenly those Ringo tickets are invalid too. (This boycott gets any bigger, we’ll all be huddling around record players, listening to bootlegged Rodriguez LPs.)
Here at Chapelboro, we’ve been trying to stay on top of things. But it’s literally impossible. In the time it takes to make a list of all the denunciations, a dozen more businesses will chime in. Try to add those dozen businesses, and six more conferences get canceled. It never ends.
Let’s simplify matters.
Rather than desperately trying to maintain a list of all the people and places that are denouncing House Bill 2, let’s just keep a list of all the folks who haven’t denounced it.
Probably faster, right?
And I’m not even saying let’s list everyone who’s come out in favor of HB2. That list barely even exists. (Remember when the NC Values Coalition tried compiling a list of pro-HB2 businesses? There were so few, they had to pad it with businesses that had pro-HB2 employees.) No, no, I’m only talking about the people who haven’t made a statement either way.
So here ya go, North Carolina: these are just some of the people who (as far as I know) haven’t gone out of their way to publicly denounce us yet. Enjoy!
Cities, Counties, And States That Have Yet To Ban Publicly-Funded Employee Travel To North Carolina
Arthur County, Nebraska
Butte, Montana
Dubuque, Iowa
Forsythe County, Georgia
Idaho
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Loving County, Texas
Merrimack, New Hampshire
North Dakota
Quail Heights, Florida
Rankin County, Mississippi
Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories
Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania
Washoe County, Nevada
Zilwaukee, Michigan
Businesses That Have Not Yet Denounced House Bill 2 Or Threatened To Pull Jobs From North Carolina
Buy Buy Baby
Chick-Fil-A
General Motors
Halliburton
IKEA
Malaysia Airlines
McDonald’s
MySpace
Sears
Walmart
Entertainers That Have No Current Plans To Stop Performing In NC Or To Donate Proceeds From NC Shows To Pro-LGBT Causes
Arena Football League
Babyface
Gallagher
Hank Williams III
Jeff Dunham
Justin Bieber
Kansas
Lauryn Hill
Los Del Rio
The Oak Ridge Boys
Pearl Jam (took long enough!)
R. Kelly
Rockwell
Shalamar
Ted Nugent
Vanilla Ice
Weird Al Yankovic
ZZ Top*
There you go, y’all! Make your purchases and travel plans accordingly. (And feel free to correct me if I got some of these wrong. There have been so many public denunciations of this bill, it’s entirely possible a few slipped through the cracks.)
(* – ZZ Top has not made a public statement about HB2, but they’re on tour this summer with Gregg Allman, who did denounce HB2 on April 12. They’re still coming to North Carolina in May.)
Zz top has not denounced us, but now cancelled Carolina Rebellion due to band member injury.