Gay Trump supporters who were denied a place in the city’s annual Charlotte Pride parade are staging a protest at the popular event on Sunday afternoon.
The Charlotte-based Republican group Deplorable Pride said their march will begin 30 minutes before the parade, and they intend it to be “a non-confrontational peaceful demonstration.” The group will walk from Romare Bearden Park on Church Street to the corner of Trade and Tryon streets, which is the center of Charlotte Pride activities.
“Come and show your support for your fellow Trump supporters who are LGBT and are being persecuted by their own gay community,” said statement on Deplorable Pride’s Facebook page. “Please help us show that intolerance is not acceptable.”
A spokesman for Charlotte Pride defended its decision Friday, saying the nonprofit has the right to exclude any group it feels does not reflect the parade’s values of welcoming groups on the fringes of American society, including undocumented immigrants.
“In the past, we have made similar decisions to decline participation from other organizations espousing anti-LGBTQ religious or public policy stances,” according a Charlotte Pride statement. “Charlotte Pride envisions a world in which LGBTQ people are affirmed, respected, and included in the full social and civic life of their local communities, free from fear of any discrimination, rejection, and prejudice.”
As if religious protesters opposed to homosexuality, BLM and SJW’s ruining PRIDE is not enough. Now this?
After the Charlotte, North Carolina City Council caved this week and repealed their LGBT rights ordinances in a deal with North Carolina’s GOP Senate to repeal the hateful HB2 bill that has cost thee state millions of dollars in revenue from tourism, entertainment profits, and conventions. State Senate leader Phil Berger who is the primary sponsor of legislation filed Wednesday that would repeal the law passed in March dictating which bathroom transgender people must use and limiting LGBT protections has used the old bait-and switch.
The new legislation would repeal HB2 but would also block local governments from passing ordinances regulating LGBT employment practices or public accommodations related to restrooms, showers or changing facilities for six months.
No other city or county in North Carolina other than Charlotte has any form of LGBT protection law on the books.
The six months’ delay, really, is probably a tactic to give the Republicans more time to think up other ways to discriminate against North Carolina’s LGBT community and get tourism back on track. Also to stop Charlotte from re-voting for LGBT protections as soon as possible. But now LGBT North Carolinian’s will be left with no legal protections in a state that has proven to be hostile and discriminatory to them.
Even though the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of North Carolina, Lambda Legal and the law firm of Jenner & Block were challenging H.B. 2 in federal court but now that Charlotte, North Carolina has caved mostly because of the states loss of income more than anything else, LGBT ‘s in that state are left with no protections at all at the very least for 6 months.
If HB2 would have gone to the Supreme Court to battle as planned and the court found the measure was born of animus, it would have been struck down. HB2 is a constitutional monstrosity.
One of Anthony Kennedy’s favorite legal maxims comes from The Common Lawby Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.: “Even a dog distinguishes between being stumbled over and being kicked.
And North Carolina you have been kicked repeatedly.
*UPDATE
After recessing much of the afternoon, it seems lawmakers might be abandoning any attempt to pass anything. It seems that without the support of Democrats, there were not enough Republican votes to actually pass the repeal bill that includes a “cooling off period.” If that holds true into the evening, the NC GOP will have not only failed to pass a shoddy HB2 repeal bill; they will have failed to pass any repeal bill at all…
…At 6:20 p.m., the Senate approved an amendment to the repeal bill extending the six-month moratorium on local protections until the end of the 2017 legislative session. In other words, the deal got worse, because North Carolina Republicans refuse to vote for a bill that will still allow cities to protect LGBT people from discrimination.
*UPDATE II: The ACLU and Lambda Legal condemned lawmakers:
“The General Assembly and Governor McCrory are playing political chicken, and North Carolinians continue to lose for it. It is an outrage that North Carolina’s lawmakers could not follow the mandate of the voters and repeal H.B. 2,” said Simone Bell, Southern Regional Director at Lambda Legal. As long as H.B. 2 is on the books, thousands of LGBT people who call North Carolina home, especially transgender people, are being discriminated against and will never feel safe. This was a counterproductive exercise in reaffirming to the rest of the country that North Carolina wants to remain mired in this divisive dispute.
“It is a shame that North Carolina’s General Assembly is refusing to clean up the mess they made. The support for the LGBT community from political leaders, faith leaders, businesses, and everyday people that has emerged this year will not fade. These attempts to expel transgender people from public life will not be tolerated,” said James Esseks, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT & HIV Project. “The legislature may not be willing to undo their unconstitutional overreach and respect the rights of LGBT people, so we’ll just have to see them in court.”
After the North Carolina GOP controlled Senates shameful behavior and lies. Back2Stonewall.com calls for the boycott of the state of the state of North Carolina to continue and be escalated.
In a vote was 10-0. Charlotte’s City Council has voted to repeal its controversial non-discrimination ordinance, unfortunately known as the ‘bathroom’ ordinance” despite the fact that encompassed LGBT protections for housing and employment discrimination along with public accommodations. The ordinance was pushed through the council in early 2016, just months into Mayor Jennifer Roberts’ tenure, and as a part of it required businesses to allow people to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender identity which quickly became the main issue on both sides.
Following a surprise move by the Charlotte City Council, Gov.-elect Roy Cooper said Monday that Legislative leaders have promised him to call a special session Tuesday to repeal House Bill 2.
“Senate Leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore assured me that as a result of Charlotte’s vote, a special session will be called for Tuesday to repeal HB 2 in full,” Cooper said in a statement. “I hope they will keep their word to me and with the help of Democrats in the legislature, HB2 will be repealed in full.
“Full repeal will help to bring jobs, sports and entertainment events back and will provide the opportunity for strong LGBT protections in our state.” Cooper’s announcement followed the Charlotte City Council’s vote to rescind the LGBT ordinance that prompted House Bill 2. The council was meeting at a breakfast meeting called to discuss its legislative agenda.
Mayor Jennifer Roberts called it the first concrete opportunity to repeal HB2. The law, which limits LGBT rights, has been cited as the reason for millions in lost economic development and boycotts by the NCAA and others.
LGBT activists nationwide along with the the ACLU and Lambda Legal are outraged by the city of Charlotte’s move:
“H.B. 2 was an unprecedented attack on the LGBT community, in particular against transgender people, and we are encouraged that its days are numbered,” said Sarah Gillooly, Policy Director for the ACLU of North Carolina. “It is imperative that the General Assembly hold up their end of the deal and repeal H.B. 2 in full without delay. This will be an important step for North Carolinians to move forward, but it never should have come at the cost of protections for LGBT people living in Charlotte.”
“LGBT rights aren’t a bargaining chip. Charlotte shouldn’t have had to repeal its ordinance in exchange for H.B. 2 to be repealed,” said Simone Bell, the Southern Regional Director for Lambda Legal. “LGBT people in North Carolina still need protection from discrimination.”
The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of North Carolina, Lambda Legal and the law firm of Jenner & Block are challenging H.B. 2 in federal court on behalf of four LGBT North Carolinians and members of the ACLU of North Carolina.
The ACLU and Lambda Legal lawsuit, Carcaño v. McCrory, was filed days after H.B. 2 was passed by the North Carolina General Assembly and signed by Governor Pat McCrory. In the lawsuit, the groups argue that through the law, North Carolina sends a purposeful message that LGBT people are second-class citizens who are undeserving of the privacy, respect, and protections afforded others in the state and that transgender individuals, in particular, are expelled from public life through H.B. 2’s mandate that they be forced out of restrooms and changing facilities that accord with who they are.
The complaint argues that H.B. 2 violates Title IX and Title VII by discriminating against students and school employees on the basis of sex. It also argues the law is unconstitutional because it violates the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment by discriminating on the basis of sex and sexual orientation and violates the privacy and medical decision making rights of transgender people.”
Unsurprisingly the Human Rights Campaign does not seem all that upset about it:
“Governor-elect Cooper has briefed us on a deal he brokered with state lawmakers to reach a complete and total repeal of HB2,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “HB2 is precisely why North Carolinians went to the polls and ousted Governor McCrory last month. It’s time to chart a new course guided by the state’s values of dignity and respect, not discrimination and hate — and to ensure non-discrimination protections exist in cities, towns and across the state of North Carolina. It’s been 271 days since the shameful and archaic HB2 was first passed, and the entire country has witnessed its devastating impact. It’s time for state lawmakers to repeal HB2 and begin repairing the harm this bill has done to people and the damage it has done to North Carolina’s reputation and economy.”
Obviously NON GAY (because he’s a fraking moron) Y2 Yoga owner and instructor Tanner Bazemore let his clients know by email that his NON Gay Yoga Studio would be closed during the recent snowstorm by stating: “Greetings! I know it sounds gay, but we are definitely less gay across the bored when compared to CMS, BOA” and “Mainly, I am being gay” by closing the studio” and “Closing completely because of some white stuff is being uber gay!”
Now if that wasn’t bad enough the email also included four disclaimers letting everyone know he used the word “gay” to mean “bad.” And if you had a problem with his message? “Pedophiles who feel hurt with my words send your comments to john_walsh@americasmostwanted.com.”
Blazemore insists “while I might be a moron, I’m not a hurtful person.” (Just a fucking idiot)
Blazemore also has now sent a check for $1,000 to the It Gets Better project.
Too little, too late Tanner You’re obviously a downward facing frat boy dog.
