LGBT Law Protest: Atlanta Mayor Bans City Travel to North Carolina

ATLANTA, GA -- Mayor Kasim Reed has banned all city employees from traveling to North Carolina because of the state's controversial new law concerning the LGBT community.

“As a result of [N.C.] Gov. Pat McCrory’s decision to sign discriminatory and unnecessary legislation into law, effective today I am directing all city departments to stop non-essential, publicly-funded employee travel to the state of North Carolina," said Reed in a statement late Monday afternoon.

The North Carolina bill has come under heavy fire, including a lawsuit filed last week. It was passed in a last-minute legislative session and voids all laws at the city and county level that ban employers from discriminating based on sexual orientation or gender.

The North Carolina law was passed after the city of Charlotte was set to enforce a new law protecting LGBT and transgender workers. It was framed as a fight against men in women's bathrooms and vice versa, as the Charlotte law would have allowed transgender people to choose which bathrooms they use.

"I extend my support to Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts, who worked to enhance protections for the city’s LGBT population, as well as to the LGBT residents of North Carolina," Reed said. "Every person, regardless of their gender, gender expression or sexuality is a valued member of our community.”

The ACLU is suing North Carolina over the new law. "The law is intolerable and puts the most vulnerable among us at risk of discrimination, harassment and violence," the ACLU said in a statement.

Reed's move comes a week after Gov. Nathan Deal announced that he would veto a law passed by the recent Georgia General Assembly that would have allowed faith-based groups to refuse services or terminate employees based on sexual orientation.

"Government doesn't need to confer religious liberty," Deal said. "Inclusions and omissions in their statutes may lead to discrimination, intentional or unintentional.

"This is about the character of our state and people. Georgia is full of loving, kind and generous people, who choose to worship God in their own way."

Read: Governor Nathan Deal's Remarks on Religious Liberty Veto

The Georgia bill drew widespread criticism from local and national businesses.

Read more of Patch's coverage

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