I understand and respect the seriousness of this conversation...I definitely agree that our presence in Charlotte will/should have a bigger impact than our absence ever would. Boycotting one state in this sea of bigotry and hate seems like wasted energy. I also don't think it's fair to focus solely on Charlotte/NC at this point. As someone pointed out earlier in this thread, 32 out of 33 states have decided to outlaw gay marriage...31 of them prior to the NC vote/ban. Lastly, this is not solely a problem for the LGBT community...Amendment 1 attacked domestic partnerships as a whole. The only relationship the state will recognize is marriage between a man and a woman. Single mothers are also placed in a very precarious position in the eyes of the courts as a result of this ill-written, anti-human legislation.
I think the following suggestion should be looked into further
I, too, would prefer to avoid giving my vacation money to bigots. Is there a queer organization we can ask to provide us with a list of allied businesses, like restaurants and hotels, that we would like to give our dollars to? Inkera or Karen, I would love your suggestions on how to make this possible.
It may not be possible to list all the Gay friendly businesses, but here in San Diego, we definitely have a listing of the unfriendly businesses.
We could also post a petition on Change.org asking the chair of the DNC/NC Governor/State house to take action in the form of a resolution to block the adoption of the amendment. With all of our venues/poets/audiences, I very confident we could get more than 25k viral signatures to support that effort. I can come up with some language for the petition (since its what I do for a living) and get it up on Change.org in a short amount of time. It may not stop the adoption/enforcement but it would send notice and let our voice be heard at the highest levels of govt.
