Last week CoStar Group announced that it chose to locate a 730-job expansion in Richmond, VA instead of Charlotte, NC. The Charlotte Observer reported on October 28th that the incentives package for Virginia totaled $10.6 million, while North Carolina’s was $9.7 million. CoStar CEO Andrew Florance was quoted in the Washington Post as saying that HB 2 was “more controversy than we want to engage in right now.”
Published articles imply that CoStar’s decision was made primarily because of HB 2. For whatever role HB 2 played in the decision against Charlotte, we offer the following comparison between Charlotte, NC and Richmond, VA. The company has chosen a venue where the actual laws relating to discrimination are no more “protective” of LGBT rights than those currently in effect in Charlotte.
Left-wing groups claim that Religious Freedom Restoration Acts are also discriminatory for legalizing denial of service. Remember Indiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. We do not agree that this claim has any validity. We note that North Carolina has no Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Virginia does: Virginia Code Ann. § 57-2.02 (2009).
For the reasons stated under Legends #5 and #6 of Legends vs. the Truth about HB2, we do not agree that “sexual orientation” or “gender identity” are reasonable categories for special legal rights. But for discussion purposes we offer this comparison of anti-discrimination laws in Charlotte, NC and Richmond, VA.
