Activists: Boycott local businesses that support HB2

Several Charlotte activists have teamed up to call for a boycott on local businesses that support House Bill 2.

The North Carolina bill preempts Charlotte’s anti-discrimination ordinance, which would have allowed transgender people to use the bathroom of the gender with which they identify.

The legislation requires people to use bathrooms in government buildings that match what’s on their birth certificate. But HB2 is much more than simply a bathroom bill, supporters of the boycott said Friday.

Former Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP president Dwayne Collins noted that the law prevents local governments from setting their own minimum wages. It also eliminates the right to sue in state courts for discrimination on the basis of age, race, color, national origin, sexual orientation or gender identity.

“We feel one of the best ways to persuade people to listen to what you have to say is to cut off their economic supply,” Collins said. “They need to know HB2 is a very sinister, divisive and archaic piece of legislation.”

Joining Collins at the press conference at Little Rock AME Zion Church Friday night were: Jibril Hough, a spokesperson for the Islamic Center of Charlotte; Hannah Mitchell, a Charlotte field organizer for Greenpeace; and several representatives from the Charlotte chapter of Justice or Else.

The six businesses they are asking consumers to boycott are Griffin Tile & Marble Inc., XG Technologies, Lighthouse Electric of Charlotte, Green Branch Construction, Inc., ICI Lamp Company and Carolina Green Landscape Co.

The activists chose those companies because they appeared on a recently published list of businesses that support the bill, Collins said.

This story was originally published May 20, 2016 at 9:33 PM with the headline "Activists: Boycott local businesses that support HB2."