Grace Schneider

Louisville Courier Journal

Greater Louisville Inc., the Louisville area chamber of commerce, pivoted away from leading a trip for its business members to Raleigh-Durham, N.C., after learning that North Carolina enacted a law widely reviled for discriminating against LGBT people.

"We vet cities very carefully," said Kent Oyler, president and chief executive of GLI. "We have members who are very sensitive to this issue, and we have to take that in to account."

The fact that North Carolina passed the law "was a factor, absolutely," he said.

The North Carolina legislature's law blocks local governments from passing anti-discrimination rules to allow protections to gay and transgender people. It was passed last month and went into effect April 1, an apparent reaction to the city of Charlotte passing a measure protecting people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender from discrimination by businesses. The state law supersedes any local nondiscrimination ordinances.

GLI, which leads trips annually for business leaders to learn about economic development and innovative approaches in other communities, announced this week that the group of 100 or so would go to Austin, Texas, Sept. 11 to 13. The capitol city has ballooned with an influx of young, educated workers drawn to a high-tech, high-paying jobs and a vibrant live music scene.

GLI officials were trying to work out details for going to Raleigh, Oyler said, including contacting the city's mayor about time for the group to meet while there. The trip was not pinned down when GLI officials learned about the new state law, and "that gave us pause," he said.

It was easy enough to turn to Austin, which members also had expressed strong interest in visiting. Oyler noted that in 2000 when GLI led a trip to Austin, the city was roughly the same size as Louisville. Now it has more than 2 million residents, a growth of 57 percent. "There's a lot of things that make Austin quite a success story," he said.

The decision isn't a knock on the city of Raleigh, and "hopefully we'll go down there sometime," Oyler said.

Reporter Grace Schneider can be reached at 502-582-4082 or email, gschneider@courier-journal.com.