Due to North Carolina’s wholly rational and scientific law stipulating that men and women can only use restrooms corresponding to their biological sex, the streaming platform Netflix has opted to boycott the state.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the streaming platform’s upcoming coming-of-age drama “OBX” will now be filmed in South Carolina instead of North Carolina (where the story is set) because of House Bill 2, which required transgenders to use bathrooms according to their sex assigned at birth. Hollywood celebrities have been wailing and gnashing their teeth at the law since it passed in 2016. Some studios have already pulled projects out of the state.
Though parts of HB2 have been repealed, LGBTQ activists take issue with certain provisions within the replacement law.
“Despite the fact that North Carolina repealed a section of the law in 2017 following a year of backlash, it didn’t completely overturn HB2,” reports THR. “One problematic piece of the replacement bill, per insiders, is a clause that forbids municipalities from enacting non-discrimination ordinances for any group not included in state law — including LGBTQ people — until 2020.”
Inside sources told THR that other factors were at play in Netflix’s decision to essentially boycott North Carolina, though they remain unknown. Guy Gaster, director of North Carolina’s film office, did not elaborate further when asked by reporters.
“This is an economic development project and therefore we don’t discuss pending projects,” said Gaster.
“OBX” creator Jonas Pate, a native to North Carolina, lamented to local newspaper The Fayetteville Observer how HB2 is preventing the local economy from getting good jobs.
“This tiny law is costing this town 70 good, clean, pension-paying jobs and also sending a message to those people who can bring these jobs and more that North Carolina still doesn’t get it,” he said.
The 10-episode series will cost a reported $60 million to make.
Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin praised Netflix for their decision. “Good on @netflix for taking seriously the impact of this disgraceful law on their LGBTQ talent & employees,” he tweeted. “It’s been nearly 3 years since NC passed #HB2, and it’s long past time for this hateful bill to be fully repealed.”
North Carolina is not the only state to endure this type of boycott from the enlightened betters of Tinseltown. Last year, Hollywood threatened to boycott Georgia when the State Senate “passed a bill that would have made it legal for adoption agencies to not work with same-sex couples.” Facing immense bully pressure, the state amended the bill to allow same-sex couples to adopt children.
“With the institutionalized homophobia that’s coming out of Georgia right now, we have a responsibility to not feed our money into their system,” said “Grey’s Anatomy” showrunner Krista Vernoff at the time. “Showrunners and actors have more power in this than they may be aware.”
What’s most hypocritical about Netflix boycotting North Carolina is that the streaming platform recently caved to the government of Saudi Arabia by removing an episode of “Patriot Act” with Hasan Minhaj from streaming within the country in response to the kingdom’s complaints that the episode showed it in a negative light.
Netflix removed the episode from streaming after the Saudi government cited a local statute it allegedly violated. Article 6 of that law says that “production, preparation, transmission, or storage of material impinging on public order, religious values, public morals, and privacy, through the information network or computers” is a crime.