The Louisiana Legislature's special veto session begins tomorrow. Observers across the state and the country are keeping an eye on lawmakers as they consider overriding Governor John Bel Edwards's veto of a bill banning certain medical procedures for transgender youths.
Tourism officials warn: overriding those vetoes could be bad for business.
"These kinds of bills, they create challenges for us," New Orleans and Company president and CEO Walt Leger said, noting that similar bills in other states, such as Texas and Florida, have caused negative repercussions there.
Leger says the threat of these bills becoming law in Louisiana is causing conventions--and companies--to pump the breaks on coming to New Orleans.
"It's not the kind of environment that's welcoming to businesses that we are asking to relocated here, and it's certainly difficult for our amazing businesses to be able to recruit and retain talent when any discriminatory laws are floating around out there," Leger said.
Leger adds that some conventions are already rethinking their decisions to hold their events in New Orleans.
"Once you've got them on the books, you can sometimes hold on to them. The question is: do you get scratched off lists? And we know for a fact that for some associations, they have currently circled the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana because of bills like these that are pending and said that we're a question mark for the future. We continue to work with those customers to find solutions."
Those bills could also cause major sports leagues to avoid New Orleans as a host city for their big events, especially when the city is competing against Texas, Florida, Las Vegas, and other bigger markets to host big ticket events.
"North Carolina had some discriminatory laws that their legislature was pushing. They passed those laws," Leger said, referring to North Carolina's so-called "Bathroom Bill" that targeted transgender people. "Louisiana had similar bills pending in our legislature. We were able to kill those pieces of legislation and move away from that political fight, and as a result, they pulled the game from North Carolina and moved it to the city of New Orleans."
Leger says the messaging from the major sports leagues, conventions, and businesses is clear. He also says he hopes lawmakers will realize what's at stake, listen to that message, and uphold the governor's vetoes.
"Be a welcoming, open, and free marketplace for people to do business so that everyone feels like they're welcome there, and you can benefit from that," Leger said. "Our marketplace works best when it's free from discrimination of any kind."
