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���������� Note: In response to North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory’s decision to sign an anti-LGBT law last week, Governor Cuomo banned all non-essential state travel to North Carolina. In his statement, Governor Cuomo said, “From Stonewall to marriage equality, our state has been a beacon of hope and equality for the LGBT community, and we will not stand idly by as misguided legislation replicates the discrimination of the past.”

The legislation was designed to override local LGBT protections in Charlotte, targeting residents’ fears that transgender persons might prey on members of the opposite biological gender in restrooms.

���������� applauds the Governor for taking a principled stance on this issue. The transgender community has an astonishingly high rate of suicide, and we must do all we can to prevent it by furnishing those individuals with the dignity they deserve through legal protections and otherwise.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Boycotts North Carolina over Anti-L.G.B.T. Law

By Tina Nguyen Vanity Fair March 29, 2016

The battle over so-called “religious freedom” legislation, which conservatives say protects religious liberty and critics argue sanctions anti-L.G.B.T. discrimination, didn’t end with the battle over Indiana’s and Arkansas’s controversial bills last year. On Monday, Georgia governor Nathan Deal vetoed a religious freedom bill after a number of companies—including major Hollywood studios and Salesforce C.E.O. Marc Benioff—threatened to pull their business from the state. But similar protests didn’t stop North Carolina governor Pat McCrory, who signed a bill last week preventing transgender people from choosing which bathroom to use, sparking a wave of boycotts.

On Monday, ���������� governor Andrew Cuomo issued a statement banning all non-essential state travel to North Carolina, uniting with his nemesis, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who joined the mayors of Seattle and San Francisco in doing the same for all city employees. “In ����������, we believe that all people—regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation—deserve the same rights and protections under the eyes of the law,” Cuomo said in a statement, citing the state’s history at the forefront L.G.B.T. rights. “From Stonewall to marriage equality, our state has been a beacon of hope and equality for the LGBT community, and we will not stand idly by as misguided legislation replicates the discrimination of the past.”

The North Carolina bill, passed under a hastily scheduled special session, was written to override the city of Charlotte’s attempts to pass a localized ordinance expanding L.G.B.T. protections, specifically by targeting constituents’ fears that transgender individuals could use the planned Charlotte rule to prey on the opposite sex in bathrooms. “This is political correctness run amok,” Governor McCrory said, dismissing the claims of discrimination during an interview with NBC.

While McCrory is sticking to his guns, the economic pressure on North Carolina is mounting. Several major corporations have come out against the new law, including IBM, PayPal, Biogen, and Dow Chemical, as well as Apple and Facebook, which both have large data-processing centers in North Carolina. The North Carolina Hornets said in a statement that they would “ensure that all fans, players, and employees [would] feel welcome” at their games, and the N.B.A. has threatened to move their 2017 All-Star game out of Charlotte if McCrory doesn’t back down.