Protest planned for Gov. McCrory’s western residence open house

Love is Unstoppable protesters prepare visuals for tomorrow's demonstrations at the Beloved Community House in downtown Asheville. Photo courtesy of Showing Up for Racial Justice

Despite some economic gains the state has made since he took office as North Carolina’s governor in 2013, Pat McCrory isn’t a popular guy with those on the left. In conjunction with McCrory’s planned Governor’s Western Residence open house on Saturday, May 14, a broad spectrum of social and environmental advocacy groups plan to protest legislation McCrory has signed.

Organizer Holly Roach of Showing Up for Racial Justice says legislation supported by McCrory “has been terrible, just terrible.” And, she adds, “it affects all parts of society.” The left has recently displayed growing anger at McCrory over House Bill 2, a controversial law that requires that people use bathrooms marked for the sex listed on their birth certificates and changes discrimination protections in North Carolina.

On the other side of the issue, a group of McCrory supporters announced they will hold a prayer chain as a show of solidarity at the Governor’s Western Residence during the open house. Their action, the Governor’s supporters wrote in an email, will be in contrast to “an antagonistic protest… that includes estimates of 1,000 participants, toilet paper rolling at the residence, vulgarity actions, and other ‘creative’ initiatives to make their claim that free-range potty access is a social justice issue.”

Roach, meanwhile, maintains that her group’s protest will be a completely nonviolent and appropriate outcry for justice.

The protest coalition will include groups dedicated to the rights of racial minorities, immigrants, the LGBTQ community and economic opportunity. The action is the local manifestation of a national weekend of action dubbed Love is Unstoppable. According to a press release, the groups will gather early Saturday morning at Memorial Stadium and then line the street to stand in remembrance of recently deceased civil rights leader Issac Coleman.

The social justice coalition will then meet up with a regiment of environmentalist groups performing a protest theatre piece criticizing McCrory’s close relationship with Duke Energy. After that, participants will shuttle up Town Mountain to the beautiful property overlooking Asheville that the Governor may call home when he or she visits the western part of the state.

It appears likely that the protest group and the supporter group will be at the open house at the same time, meaning the affair could shape up to provide a spectacle of opposing political forces and views. If that happens, it would be in strong contrast to last year’s open house, a quiet and sparsely attended occasion with intermittent rain and minimal visible security.

Full press release from BeLoved Asheville and Black Lives Matter:

13147449_1713224725598943_5912149717861767555_oDuring the Governor’s visit to our People’s Western Residence, hundreds of committed community members will come together Saturday for a peaceful demonstration witnessing to the power of love over hate.

We refuse to join a political agenda founded on hate and oppression. White supremacy and racism are not a partisan issue. Neither are transphobia and discrimination. Using fear to divide people who have every reason to stand together is an age old way of keeping people divided. We will deliver a message that we won’t tolerate hate in our state! We want to make sure that love is at the center of our state and national politics, both in word and policy.

Our Governor has announced an open house, but we want an open state–a state open to inclusive spaces, a state open to living wages, a state open to all people without discrimination.

“The diversity of the coalition that’s come together for Love Unstoppable is a testimony that HB2 and other legislation from this administration is affecting all arenas of public life,” Holly Roach, organizer with SURJ Asheville.

We will gather at 8:30 a.m. at Memorial Stadium, march from the stadium up South Charlotte St. to College. We will line the sidewalk and have a moment to honor the memory and pledge to carry the legacy of Isaac Coleman, a long time giant for social justice in our community. We will make our way across the street for the Toxic Marriage ceremony of Duke Energy and Gov. McCrory recently performed at the Duke shareholders meeting in Charlotte. Then we will proceed to the People’s Western Residence to bring our concerns to the Governor through conversation in a peaceful way.

We will also continue to witness to the power of love on Sunday May 15, beginning with a noon march to the Federal Building from BeLoved, 39 Grove Street, Asheville. We will challenge the hate speech and racism running rampant in this election cycle and call on our local leaders to stand for love by changing the State of Black Asheville, committing to keeping families together and safe from fear.

Love Unstoppable Asheville has been organized by community groups working in solidarity including the Asheville Buncombe County Branch of the NAACP, Tranzmission, BeLoved Asheville, Black Lives Matter, SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) Asheville, Nuestro Centro, Just Economics, CIMA and other concerned residents.

Love Is Unstoppable is part of a national campaign with Showing Up for Racial Justice taking place this weekend.

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About Able Allen
Able studied political science and history at Warren Wilson College. He enjoys travel, dance, games, theater, blacksmithing and the great outdoors. Follow me @AbleLAllen

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25 thoughts on “Protest planned for Gov. McCrory’s western residence open house

  1. Denial

    Better then having a job. No one cares about your protests. All lives matter.

    • Whathuh

      Than. Better than. If you’re gonna attempt an insult, don’t miss.

      Black Lives Matter.

    • Megan

      Black lives matter because black lives are much more in danger in this country than white ones. Also, the protest is happening on Saturday. Most people have that day off of work. For that matter, this protest is very important and does matter — if only to remind trans people that we will stand with them and we will fight with them.

      • Hillary Clinton

        Black lives matter? Only if it’s taken by a police officer or a white man. Let’s see black lives matter protest in Chicago against gang violence, not gonna happen because no one is going to pay them to protest. Keep stoking the racial lines see what’s left after your done.

        • Megan

          I’m not “stroking racial lines”. I’m saying that if we as white people don’t listen to and understand the struggles black people experience in this country, we will never move forward. Centuries of slavery and segregation do not just dissappear within a generation. When people get frustrated with the retort “All Lives Matter”, it is not because we don’t believe that, it is because we feel the point is being missed yet again.

          • Gillian

            Seems by the turnout no one cares. Good luck with you white shame!

          • Megan

            Strangely, this website will not let me respond to you, Gillian, so I don’t know if you’ll see this. I am truly sad to hear that turn-out was low. I actually do have work today, so I could not attend. If there are any LGBT people reading this, please believe that you still have support! You are loved and there is nothing wrong with you.

            Also, I am not ashamed of being white. I do not carry the burden of my ancestor’s mistakes. I’m just aware that so many years of bigotry leave behind legacies, be them and older person with misinformed beliefs or unconscious prejudice almost anyone can have.

            I do wish people in this thread could talk more civilly with each other, rather than acting like they’re trying to win something. The country needs to learn to communicate again — it’s vital to all of us.

  2. Giordano Bruno

    Hmm…Here is a radical idea for the lefty radicals–maybe win an election or two at the polls and take back the governorship and General Assembly. Then you too can get a chance to pass the legislation that represents the majority of voters that put you into office. You may feel strongly about the perversions of your choice, but they have always been and always will be extreme minority positions. You will not and cannot win at the polls with your perversion agenda. So sorry, but just because you feel something does not make it so. Reality sucks yet again for the mentally deranged left! :)

    • Whathuh

      Despite the right’s gerrymandering, McCrory & Trump, and you all with your whimpering cries of “pervert” when the word transgendered is mentioned, are gonna make it easy.

      So thanks for the that advice.

      • Giordano Bruno

        Your bravado and/or overconfidence is quite misplaced. Who do you think owns and controls the voting machines? Certainly not the LBGTBBQ mafia.

    • Ken Hanke

      just because you feel something does not make it so

      Tell that to those who want to govern based on their religion.

      • Giordano Bruno

        Mr. Hanke, secularism IS the religion of the left…I guess you’ve just been told as the kids say! :)

        • Whathuh

          Funny, a guy calling himself Giordano Bruno lecturing someone else on religion. And sad that your point is essentially just shouting ‘perverts’ as if it is somehow an argument. You have no knowledge of the science regarding transgendered people, but you dare take the name Bruno, and then spout off as if you were one of those who burned him.

          How twisted is that?

          • Giordano Bruno

            Haha! Yeah, how twisted is that? No more twisted than a biological man with male anatomy calling himself a woman and expecting society to allow him to perform elimination and dress and undress in front of biological and anatomical underage girls and women….who is the pervert now whathuh? ha! I don’t think you have any knowledge of the science of how sane and well-adjusted people function. In any case secularism and material determinism ARE the basic foundational belief systems of the so-called “progressive” left. Truth is truth, don’t burn the messenger! haha!

          • Whathuh

            Bruno would be rolling in his grave, to hear you talking like that under his name. That is, if he hadn’t been burned to cinders.

        • Ken Hanke

          I guess you’ve just been told as the kids say! :)

          I’d say I was given a non-answer by someone who likes name-calling.

          • Peter Robbins

            What’s your point? That is how children talk, isn’t it?

          • bsummers

            I don’t compute that with “name-calling”

            Yes, referring to people as ‘perverts’ or ‘mentally deranged’ – that’s not name-calling, it’s rational discourse.

  3. Lawrence

    Transcripts of a recent NC meeting reveal the Guv’nor – Charlie Brown McCrory – strongly recommended that ‘Crotch Sniffing Dogs’ be Deployed in all Schools.
    Aides State: ‘Dogs have a Nose for These Things. With training they will ‘Sit or Lift Leg’ to indicate What’s What Under Clothing’.
    In the near future, it has been proposed that Bathroom ID Cards will soon join Voter ID Cards as a requirement for Folks to Go About Their Daily Business.

  4. Matt

    Check out ALECexposed.org if you are curious about the financial sources for HB2 and the agenda behind it (Hint: it’s not about bathrooms) HB2 is called a “preemption bill” or a “model bill”. It has been waiting in the wings to be passed and the Charlotte ordinance was a perfect excuse. Large corporations come together to purchase ‘their right’ to vote, i.e., purchase legislation, under the guise of a ‘non profit’ called ALEC.

    Read the entire House bill 2 here, http://tinyurl.com/j586hw6 . And you can see all the other articles ALEC purchased that rescind discrimination protection for ALL workers, that has been in place in NC since the 80’s. There’s a lot more going on than LGBT rights with HB2.

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