LA helps beat left's privileging boycott tactic

The strategy of economic boycotts from the far left aimed at jurisdictions like Louisiana over social issues officially ran out of steam with California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom’s quiet repeal of a ban on paid employee state travel to states who rejected empowering individuals of certain characteristics at the expense of others, emphasizing the moral poverty of the left’s argument.

California was the first of several states, by gubernatorial executive orders, to enact this and similar measures involving potential commercial activity between a state and others who passed laws allegedly discriminating against politically-favored constituencies. For example, California initially issued a fatwa on state travel to North Carolina because the latter passed a law mandating that people of their natal sex or altered sex when using single-sex restrooms to use those corresponding to their current sex.

At first isolated, North Carolina eventually did away with that law having little to do with California’s action, but because leftists and special interests through a combination of suasion and bullying activated some economic interests to join the boycott. Fortunately, that didn’t cow a number of other jurisdictions like Louisiana – now over half the states – to pass laws refusing to privilege the agendas of such groups. Since then, corporations and nonprofit entities have realized they lose business and opportunities to interact with all community interests and walked back from highly-politicized public pronouncements and actions signaling solidarity with the actions of the groups attempting to gain privilege.

Louisiana actually was one of the earliest targets of the ideologues, over the popular vote almost a decade prior to California’s move over amending its Constitution to define marriage as a union between a single man and single woman. A smattering of groups declared they no longer would engage in activities in the state, such as the American Political Science Association declaration in 2012 just before it held its last annual meeting in New Orleans (I let my membership lapse in it to protest its anti-intellectual, narrow-minded decision).

Not that it’s really affected anything. Last year, 77 major conventions were held in New Orleans, including arguably professional associations farther around the bend than the APSA such as the American Historical Association, Society for Social Work and Research, and American Psychiatric Association who seemingly have acquiesced to meeting in a state with policy at odds with their organizations’ political prejudices.

And similar threats were sounded by Democrats when a couple of years ago legislative majorities moved to promote fairness in women’s sports by allowing only biological females to compete in collegiate and scholastic events designated for females only. Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards – one of those predicting boycotts would rain from the skies if the bill became law – vetoed it, only to back down when essentially a copy came before him again last year.

Meanwhile, boycott threats fizzled, such as paper tiger talk from the National Collegiate Athletic Association that it wouldn’t stage championship events in states with a fairness law like Louisiana’s. That disappeared entirely, for example, when the University of Oklahoma’s softball team this year, by virtue of its 61-1 record which is the best ever in the sport, successively hosted regional and superregional tournaments and then won its third national championship in a row at the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City, despite Oklahoma having such a law. Nor did the NCAA stop Louisiana State University’s baseball team from hosting regional and superregional tournaments just afterwards.

The bullies’ tactic ultimately failed because the moral case clearly was on the side of states like Louisiana. Claimed rights of differing groups clashed, but there was no compelling reason why those of small minorities should have the privilege of overriding of the legitimate and compelling human rights of the majority. Those majorities, through articulation of their interests both intellectually and in the resulting political action, didn’t allow themselves to become steamrolled by noisy, petulant, and emotional ideologues.

Thus, California joins just about every other significant entity in throwing in the towel. Of course, rearguard actions will continue, such as through products supporting that agenda emanating from academia and entertainment, but thoughtful people will see through and ignore it, if not retaliate giving them a taste of their own medicine. And Louisiana can be proud it acted as one of the bulwarks that repelled the leftist boycott strategy.