Chicago and Portland are the latest
cities to join a protest limiting travel to North Carolina over a
recently approved anti-gay bill.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel told Crain's
Chicago Business that he'll sign an executive order barring city
employees from non-essential travel to the state.
“North Carolina's values are of
exclusion and intolerance, versus tolerance and inclusion,” Emanuel
said.
The second-term mayor added that he
plans to recruit companies to relocate to a “more inclusive”
Chicago.
“I have already been on the phone and
asked my staff to develop a list of companies … that would be
interested in [being] in a different environment from one of
exclusion,” Emanuel said.
North Carolina's House Bill 2 prohibits
any city, town or municipality from enacting measures that prohibit
discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity and
bars students attending public institutions from using the bathroom
that does not conform to their gender at birth. It effectively
nullified an LGBT protections ordinance set to take effect this week
in Charlotte.
The Portland City Council unanimously
approved a resolution condemning passage of the bill and barring city
employees from non-essential travel to the state.
Several states, including Oregon,
Washington and Vermont, have either banned travel or condemned the
bill.
Emanuel joins San Francisco Mayor Ed
Lee, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio
in implementing such a ban.