Monday, May 2, 2016

HB2: Antigay business directory goes dark




When the North Carolina Values Coalition published its two lists of businesses supporting HB2 on March 29, executive director Tami Fitzgerald and her assistant, Kami Mueller, trumpeted it as the first wave in a mighty tsunami of "business leaders" coming out foursquare against LGBT shoppers.

But as soon as NCVC posted its list of 38 "business leaders" supporting HB2, it blew up in their faces. Apparel giant Hanes Brands announced it did not support HB2 and demanded its name be removed, as were two other businesses "due to errors", NCVC confessed.

As The News & Record noted:
Mueller acknowledged the NC Values Coalition did not independently confirm the identities of everyone who signed on in support of the law and whether they are actually business leaders.  
The News & Record asked Mueller what the chance was that more names on the list might not represent business leaders authorized to speak for their companies. 
"There's a chance of everything," she said. "There's a chance I could get hit by a bus."
The bus, it appears, has done its work. North Carolina Values Coalition has deleted the list from its KeepNCSafe.org website after 32 days.

Also gone is NCVC's secret list, an unverifiable roster of businesses listed by type rather than name- fearful of the mean gays, Tami and Kami alleged. By April 30 NCVC's updates to the post claimed it had risen to 401, but they never bothered to update their own list, where the needle never passed 332.

The public list got even less select as the pace of additions to it slowed to a creep. They added businesses from out of state, businesses that do not exist, and one whose owner's name is that of an old kid's joke punchline and a Boston drag artist: Eileen Dover.

Here's NCVC's Facebook copy of the announcement from March 29:
While the air waves have been inundated with businesses, large-scale corporations, and film-makers who neither live nor vote in North Carolina, airing their grievances against HB2, their views are not a reflection of the majority of North Carolinians, 70% of whom wanted Charlotte’s ordinance repealed. 
The KeepNCsafe.org Coalition releases the following statement, “While business owners in other states have received criticism and have even been forced out of business for standing up for common sense, hundreds (334) of North Carolina business owners have signed on to a letter thanking Governor Pat McCrory and the General Assembly for passing a law affirming the privacy and safety of businesses, women, and children to live and work in accordance with their deeply held beliefs.These businesses support and applaud Governor McCrory for supporting women and children, over being politically correct.” 
"North Carolina is consistently one of the top five states in the nation for business and economic growth. Any businesses threatening to not do business in our great state based on dishonest attacks by opponents of women's and girls' privacy and safety are only hurting themselves. 
Thanks to Governor McCrory and the General Assembly's leadership and immediate action to ensure North Carolinians' privacy and safety receives maximum protection, North Carolina will continue to flourish. It would be a shame for any companies to miss out on that simply because they believe men should be allowed into locked rooms with girls and women."
As late as April 21, WNCN reported,
The North Carolina Values Coalition responded that it has hundreds of businesses that support HB2 but they say many are uncomfortable talking about it for fear of a backlash.
Most of the businesses on the public list were in construction, building supply and home services lines, perhaps reflecting a Rolodex roundup by the list's, and HB2's- most prominent supporters- the antigay real estate flipping Benham Brothers of Concord. The rest were comprised of sole proprietorships offering massages according to Biblical principles, herbal medicines, financial planning, and Mary Kay cosmetics products from a woman in Charlotte who does business as "God's Glorious Girls".

NCVC has made no public concession that it has either folded the tent or put the list into the federal witness protection program. In its place, they've launched an email boycotting tool against the corporations supporting HB2.

The "Gay? No Way!" lists didn't get much press coverage during their short, laughable lives. To preserve the record of North Carolina Values Coalition's biggest fail to date, all of Waldo's tracking posts are gathered below. They document the combination of fakery and farce HB2 supporters are willing to wallow in to support the unsupportable.


March 29: Here's the first 38 North Carolina businesses laying a claim for the right to reject your trade [UPDATE- How North Carolina Values Coalition Padded Its List of Corporate "Supporters" of Discrimination]

March 30: NC businesses pledged to discriminate rises to 49; GOP state representative signs up and gets counted twice 

March 31: 3/31 UPDATE: Raleigh lobbyists help raise discriminating biz total to 56 

April 1: And on the third day, nobody signed up for NC Values Coalition's hate lists. Not even the secret one.

April 6: HB2: 10 More Say, "Gay? No Way!"

April 8: HB2: Today's Featured Discriminator

April 15: HB2 "Don't Shop Here" list stalls as leader turns on McCrory 

April 16: HB2 supporters aren't, as "incredibly large outpouring" = 0 for 8th day

April 17: HB2 cheerleaders get their Jeb!2016 moment of no hands clapping- for the 9th day. 

April 19: HB2: NC runs dry of discriminators

April 20: HB2- Financing company will loan only heterosexual cash. 

April 29: HB2 Update- Reidsville gets its first all-in discriminators! 

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