North Carolina's anti-LGBT law could cost it billions in federal aid

A large number of businesses and public figures have spoken out against North Carolina’s discriminatory new anti-LGBT law. Now, the state may about to have a big problem with the federal government.

The New York Times reported that the law, which not only strips LGBT citizens of anti-discrimination protections but explicitly bars any municipality from enacting new ones, has attracted the attention of the Obama administration, with potentially grave consequences:

The Obama administration is considering whether North Carolina’s new law on gay and transgender rights makes the state ineligible for billions of dollars in federal aid for schools, highways and housing, officials said Friday.

Cutting off any federal money — or even simply threatening to do so — would put major new pressure on North Carolina to repeal the law, which eliminated local protections for gay and transgender people and restricted which bathrooms transgender people can use. A loss of federal money could send the state into a budget crisis and jeopardize services that are central to daily life.

The paper said that such a move was “unlikely” to happen, at least right away, but the fact that the White House is sending such a pointed signal to North Carolina is significant in and of itself.

The law has quickly become one of the most reviled in the country. Apart from the scores of prominent business leaders who have denounced it (and threatened to withdraw their money from the state), and the lawsuits that have popped up against it, the measure has also led other states and local governments to ban their employees from using public money to travel to North Carolina.

Read more at the New York Times.