Politics

Comedian Joel McHale Boycotts North Carolina's Discrimination Bil

April 10th 2016

Comedian Joel McHale started his set in North Carolina by ridiculing the state government about its backward new anti-LGBT law.

The "Community" star may have taken a cue from other celebrities and performers who are boycotting the state – such as Bruce Springsteen, who recently canceled his North Carolina visit. But McHale decided to take a different approach in his activism for the state’s LGBTQ community.

McHale surprised the crowd at the Durham Performing Arts Center by pledging to give everything he made from that night's show to the LGBTQ Center in North Carolina.

McHale also wore a shirt with a bold “LGBTQ” during his set.

To see part of his comedy act, watch here:

ICYMI: The New Law

The Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, which was recently signed into law, requires transgendered people to use restrooms and gendered locations based on the sex they were assigned at birth, not the sex that identify with. It also limits the state from passing more general nondiscrimination laws.

Here’s what the governor of North Carolina tweeted after signing the bill:

The bill passed in the state House 92 to 26 and in the Senate 32 to 0. Senate Democrats even walked out of the session, without voting in protest of the bill's inevitable success.

Democratic U.S. Rep. David Price criticized the Legislature for prioritizing discrimination.

Sarah Preston, acting executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, told CNN:

"Rather than expand nondiscrimination laws to protect all North Carolinians, the General Assembly instead spent $42,000 to rush through an extreme bill that undoes all local nondiscrimination laws and specifically excludes gay and transgender people from legal protections.”

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