‘Welcoming and Inclusive': Malloy Urges North Carolina Businesses to Relocate

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is urging North Carolina businesses to move to Connecticut in response to a new law that critics have called discriminatory against transgender people.

A letter from Malloy obtained by NBC Connecticut is expected to be sent Wednesday to several companies. 

The governor pitched for businesses to come to Connecticut because the state is "welcoming and inclusive."

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, signed a law March 23 preventing local governments from protecting people on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity when they use public accommodations.

"I'm writing to let you know that we in Connecticut are quite the opposite," Malloy wrote in the letter.

Malloy said the law sends a message that North Carolina is "closed-minded when it comes to human rights and doesn't celebrate the LGBT community."

He said employees and customers wouldn't face such "institutional discrimination" in Connecticut, which protects gender identity and expression.

According to the governor, the state has been at the "forefront for fighting for civil rights over the past few decades." He notes that Connecticut was the second state to create civil unions and in 2010 legalized same-sex marriage. 

Copyright The Associated Press
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