Your opinion is one thing, putting the livelihood of thousands of people at risk because of your opinion is another thing altogether. No one has that right. There are a lot of things in this world I don't like but I still have to live with them. From Greensboro101.com:
"In the last few days, dozens of customers have contacted the High Point Market Authority to inform us that they have cancelled plans to attend the Market in April due to passage of HB2. There are also several campaigns on social media calling for a boycott of the High Point Market this spring."
And this:
"We also feel an obligation to inform all of the Market’s stakeholders about this legislation and its impact. Our most important stakeholders are our buyers, including both retailers and designers. Other stakeholders include roughly 2000 exhibitors, over 100 landlords, the City of High Point and its citizens and the people and businesses in surrounding communities – many of whom owe their jobs to the economic activity generated by the High Point Market.
According to an economic impact study conducted by Duke University in 2013, the High Point Market is the largest economic event in the State of North Carolina each year. The Market has an annual economic impact of $5.38 billion and generates over 600,000 visitor days to the state each year. The Market and the home furnishings industry in North Carolina are responsible for over 37,000 jobs in our great state."
Now here is what I know to be fact: The Greensboro- High Point Metropolitan Statistical Area remains the #1 hungriest MSA in the United States of America, 100th out of 102 markets in economic vitality. and 95th out of the largest 100 cities in terms of citizens' ability towards upward mobility. That's right, there are more people doing without food here than anywhere else in the nation. And our overzealous state leaders just decided to give a very large chunk of our income to Nevada where the Las Vegas Furniture Market has been chipping away at the High Point Market for over a decade.
Want a definition for stupid? How about cutting your own throat?
And from the Greensboro News & Fishwrap:
":The High Point Market. Its events draw 75,000 people to High Point every six months. According to economic impact studies, it is the largest economic event in the state each year, having an impact of $5.38 billion annually.
In a Monday statement, the group said the new law — and the overwhelming backlash against it — will significantly hurt that business.
"Based on the reaction in just the last few days, hundreds and perhaps thousands of our customers will not attend Market this April," the statement read."
Just so you know, case goods and upholstered furniture made in North Carolina are making a comeback so writing off North Carolina's furniture industry isn't a good idea just yet.
Religious beliefs are like assholes-- everybody has them and not everybody likes them. I live with lots of things I don't like every single day and there is nothing in the Bible that says America's religious right shouldn't have to live with a few things they don't like as well. But for North Carolina's religious right to force more unemployment, economic hardship, devastation and hunger on the hardest hit communities in the entire nation simply because they don't like a law that 99% of you will never have to deal with is just plan wrong. After all, there's no evidence that sexual predators are lurking in public restrooms.
How will HB2 be enforced-- strip searches outside the restroom doors? The morons in Raleigh passed a bill they have no way of enforcing. Again, how do we define stupid?
And as if the local economic effects aren't enough, how about state wide economic effects? From the Charlotte Observer:
"New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has banned all non-essential state travel to North Carolina in the wake of that state's decision to overturn an ordinance on transgender rights.
The ban, which was signed by executive order on Monday, requires all state agencies, departments, boards and commissions to immediately review all requests for state funded or state sponsored travel to North Carolina."
And that won't be the last of it. I'm guessing those conservative coastal counties get more New York dollars than Greensboro and High Point do. After all, we've neither beaches nor mountains. Lots of liberals up north in Yankee land who come south every year on vacation too. You don't have to like something to admit it helps feed you. How many of you bible thumpers are currently working jobs you don't like just to make ends meet? But give you just a little bit of control over someone else's lives and you are all over it.
Blessed are those who still have jobs and don't have to rely on handouts from the god fearing, bible quoting, religious right.
