The venture capital arm of Alphabet,
the parent company of Google, said Friday that it would avoid
investing in North Carolina over a recently approved anti-gay bill.
House Bill 2, which was approved last
month during a one-day special session, blocks local municipalities
from enacting measures that prohibit discrimination based on sexual
orientation and gender identity and prohibits students in public
institutions from using the bathroom that does not conform to their
gender at birth.
GV, formerly Google Ventures, said that
it had decided not to provide financing to startups in North Carolina
until the law is repealed.
Bill Maris, the firm's chief executive,
said
in an email that he's “not comfortable deploying dollars into
startups there until the voters there fix this.”
“I am hopeful this will be repealed
quickly,” he added.
(Related: Tim
Cook, Marc Benioff, Sundar Pichai call on North Carolina to repeal
anti-gay bill.)