Ad Calls Out Anti-LGBT Discrimination in TX; Abbott Shrugs

You might have seen this ad by Empire State Development, which is New York’s economic development agency. The intent of the ad is to lure business to set up shop in the state of New York. At roughly 50 seconds in, headlines float onto the screen, including one that says Gov. Greg Abbott is OK with discrimination against gay people by public officials. The implication is that discrimination is bad for business, and businesses thinking about locating in Texas should consider New York instead.

What was Abbott’s response to this? Yesterday morning, he weighed in via his Twitter account:

But what about the very serious charge the ad makes about your hostility toward the LGBT community, Gov. Abbott?

Sure, we can have a conversation about taxes, regulations and such, but the ad is making a pretty serious charge about you and paints the state as a haven for anti-LGBT bigotry. Don’t you have a response to that?

We give up.