North Carolina's a odd mix of the old South, with its Bible-belt culture and prejudices, and the new South, with respected universities, research and relatively moderate politics. It's a state that can elect a Kay Hagan, John Edwards or Terry Sanford, and turn around and elect a Jesse Helms or its current Rethug Governor Pat "McCrock" McCrory. McCrory, whose earlier brush with fame as Governor was his intervention on behalf of his former employer Duke Energy after the disastrous Dan River coal ash spill, has also been actively undermining voting rights for people that have historically supported Democrats.
Lately, a major right-wing mission (particularly for those in the talibangelist wing of the movement) has been the reversal of gains of the LGBT community in marriage equality, and equal treatment. So last week, a bill passed by the Republican General Assembly landed on McCrory's desk that overturned a local Charlotte, NC anti-discrimination ordinance, and he immediately signed it into law. While a provision allowing transgender people to use public bathrooms associated with their identity received wide publicity, the law goes further in prohibiting any municipality in North Carolina from expanding anti-discrimination laws.
Now, the State of North Carolina is facing a significant backlash from some major corporate employers in the state, who don't share the Rethugs' enthusiasm for discrimination. Companies like American Airlines, Apple, Dow Chemical, Wells Fargo and some Silicon Valley investors have objected to the new law as a violation of their practices and values. The National Basketball Association also condemned the new law.
After the phony "religious freedom" justifications for anti-LGBT discrimination were legalized in Indiana last year, that state and its Republican Governor Mike "Sex Pence" Pence faced withering blowback from corporations trying to do business in the 21st century. The talibangelist forces on the right in states like Indiana and North Carolina (and potentially Georgia) are increasingly at war not only with the LGBT community, but with the normally conservative corporate world that sees this kind of discrimination as bad for business.
BONUS: Andy Borowitz mocks the
