Craft Breweries Strike Back Against North Carolina's New Anti-LGBTQ Law

All profits from a new beer will go to LGBTQ organizations

A recent spate of new pro-discrimination laws popping up across the U.S. are causing reasonable people everywhere to throw up their hands and say "but seriously, WTF?", and the craft beer industry is fighting back.

As Eater sister site Vox explains, a new law in North Carolina "bans nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people and stops transgender people in schools and government buildings from using the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity." In response, reports WNCN, two North Carolina craft breweries — Mystery Brewing Company in Hillsborough and Durham's Ponysaurus Brewing Company — have banded together to create a new beer: Don't Be Mean to People, "a golden (rule) saison."

The beer will be served at 30 breweries across the state, and 100 percent of the profits will be donated to local organizations that serve the LGBTQ community. "We don't feel like [the new law] represents us as citizens or business owners in this state," Mystery Brewing founder Erik Myers told the Daily Tarheel.

Meanwhile a few states over, Mississippi just passed its own absurd new law that will allow business owners — and landlords, among others — to legally discriminate against people for religious reasons. The state's restaurant industry is worried that the new legislation will hurt tourism, and has launched a campaign it hopes will help: Participating businesses will put up "Everyone's Welcome" window decals to let potential patrons know they won't be participating in any newly legal discrimination.

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