Gay-Rights Advocates Look to Cities as Firewall Against Rollback
- Mayor says N.C. lawmakers aired threats over bathroom flap
- Liberals increasingly look to local government for protections
Nikolas Lemos waves a rainbow flag as people enter San Francisco City Hall in anticipation of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage on June 26, 2013.
Photographer: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
The mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, whose anti-discrimination ordinance was invalidated by Republican state legislators with a law that became a national lightning rod, still fears reprisals by those lawmakers.
If Charlotte defies the state legislature by passing the same ordinance again, “They can take sales tax revenue away, they’ll probably restructure our council -- I mean, we’ve heard people threaten that,” said Jennifer Roberts, a former diplomat who’s been mayor city since 2015. “It truly is not an equal negotiation.”