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Metro To Boycott North Carolina Because The State Hates LGBT People
Pretty. (Photo by Metro via Facebook)
Because North Carolina thinks it’s okay to legally discriminate against LGBT people, the CEO of Los Angeles County Metro has decided to forbid any Metro employee from traveling to North Carolina for an upcoming transit conference.
As such, Metro will not be providing funds for about 20 employees who were originally supposed to attend the American Public Transportation Association conference in Charlotte North Carolina this coming May, according to the L.A. Times.
Aside from discussion about how to more comprehensively plan our cities in a more sustainable and ecologically conscious manner, the conference was to include some more free-wheeling events like the ever popular “Bus Roadeo” where operators test their ability to maneuver, well, large buses. A maintenance competition was also expected to dazzle.
Metro isn’t the first transit agency to back out of the May conference. Metro CEO Phil Washington elaborated in a letter he wrote and sent to all Metro employees:
I have given this issue some thought over the last couple of days and though I came to a decision earlier in the week, I wanted to first take the time to confer with our Labor/Union Leadership and the employee participants in this year’s APTA Bus Roadeo. That said, I have decided to join several other transit agencies in not allowing employees to travel to the state of North Carolina for the APTA Bus & Paratransit Conference.
More than just transit agencies are protesting North Carolina’s new law, which requires transgender people to use the bathroom of their biological birth and prohibits local governments from passing laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Most notably, Paypal decided to not open a new Charlotte office because of the law. Bruce Springsteen cancelled a concert on Friday, and Apple waved a condemning finger in N.C.’s direction.
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Meanwhile, California just decided that all women should be able to get birth control without a prescription.
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