US News

Louisiana governor signs LGBT protection order as other states face backlash

Democratic Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards took a step to the left side of a political divide playing out across the U.S. South on Wednesday when he signed an executive order that provides protection for the LGBT community in state jobs and contractors that deal with the state. The executive order also rescinds former Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal’s controversial Marriage and Conscience Executive Order. Edwards said the move was good for the state and business there.

[Jindal’s order did] nothing but divide our state and force the business community, from Louisiana’s smallest businesses to large corporations like IBM, to strongly oppose it. John Bel Edwards, Louisiana governor

Across the South, the debate over LGBT rights has flared. Transgender people in South Carolina on Wednesday told state senators that a bill requiring them to use a public bathroom corresponding to their “biological sex” puts them in danger of harassment. The overwhelming majority of people at the hearing opposed the measure, which mimics part of a North Carolina law signed last month that has brought a national backlash. Meanwhile, in Tennessee, 60 business leaders — including the CEOs of Williams-Sonoma, AirBnb, Alcoa, T-Mobile and Dow Chemical — signed a letter asking lawmakers to kill similar legislation.