HARTFORD — Gov. Dan Malloy is urging North Carolina businesses to move to Connecticut in response to a new law that critics have called discriminatory.
A letter from Malloy obtained by The Associated Press is expected to be sent today to several companies.
The Democrat says businesses should move to Connecticut because it’s “welcoming and inclusive.”
North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, a Republican, signed a law March 23 preventing local governments from protecting people on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity when they use public accommodations.
Malloy says the law sends a message that North Carolina is “closed-minded when it comes to human rights and doesn’t celebrate the LGBT community.”
He says employees and customers wouldn’t face such “institutional discrimination” in Connecticut, which protects gender identity and expression.
Last year, Florida Gov. Rick Scott visited Connecticut to try and lure companies to the Sunshine State after the new budget included tax increases for businesses. Last June, Indiana also reached out by taking out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal. And on Tuesday, Scott again urged another state institution–this time Yale University–to leave the state to avoid taxes on endowments.
