CHARLOTTE Charlotte Chamber president and CEO Bob Morgan supported the Charlotte City Council on this morning’s decision to repeal the nondiscrimination ordinance, he said in a statement.”We commend the Charlotte City Council for taking action to bring about a solution to the controversy surrounding the passage of the City of Charlotte’s nondiscrimination ordinance and the subsequent passage of House Bill 2,” the statement said. “We encourage the North Carolina General Assembly to act promptly.”The Charlotte Chamber supported a similar deal in September between the state and city council, which Mayor Jennifer Roberts and the city council turned down. House Bill 2 led to several companies and other entities from pulling out of North Carolina, including in Charlotte.PayPal cancelled expansion and Co-Star chose Richmond instead of Charlotte, both citing H.B. 2 and costing Charlotte approximately 1,000 jobs. Sporting events such as the ACC football championship and NBA All-Star Game pulled out. At the 136th annual Charlotte Chamber meeting, Angie Vincent-Hamacher of Robinson Bradshaw law firm said in a roundtable discussion, “The chamber has worked very diligently to curb the economic loss that has resulted (from House Bill 2).”While repeal of the ordinance was unexpected, the Charlotte City Council said it stood by its support of nondiscrimination in their Resolution of the Charlotte City Council. “The Charlotte City Council reaffirms its opposition to discrimination based upon race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, familial status, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression;” Gov. Pat McCrory has called a special session to repeal H.B. 2. In a release, Graham Wilson, press secretary for McCrory, said: “Gov. McCrory has always publicly advocated a repeal of the overreaching Charlotte ordinance.”
