Now things are getting serious for North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory.
The Bank of America (BAC) based in Charlotte, N.C. And with 15,000 employees in the state, has now joined forces with the Human Rights Campaign and dozens of big tech companies to challenge the state’s governor and legislature for passing a bill widely viewed as discriminatory against the LGBT community.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) spearheaded an open letter to McCrory demanding repeal of House Bill 2. It was signed by executives from IBM (IBM), Dropbox, Salesforce.com (CRM). Critics say HB2, which mandates that transgender people use the bathrooms of their biological sex is discriminatory. A transgender male who identifies as female could not legally use the women’s bathroom or locker room in public facilities.
The law, passed and signed into law within 12 hours last week, sparked a firestorm of criticism from many quarters.
On Tuesday, former BoA chief executive Hugh McColl, blasted the law as “inappropriate, unnecessary legislation that will hurt North Carolina” according to The Charlotte Observer.
Attorney General Calls His State’s Bathroom Law ‘an Embarrassment’
That same day, North Carolina’s Attorney General Roy Cooper, a Democrat who is challenging McCrory in the gubernatorial race, said his office would not defend “an unconstitutional law” against a federal lawsuit filed by the ACLU, the Human Rights Campaign and others. He added that the legislation, which was passed to override a local Charlotte ordinance, would hurt the city.
Proud of BofA’s progressive workplace policies and practices supporting our #LGBT employees. Pic.twitter.com/yqoiDPugCq
— Cathy Bessant (@CathyBessant) March 24, 2016
Last week, one BoA official touted the company’s spirit of inclusion on Twitter (TWTR), but the bank had not formally voiced its disapproval of the law until Tuesday night when it added its name to an open letter to McCory compiled by the HRC. The letter calls for McCrory and the state legislature to repeal HB2.