During a political forum I attended last fall, someone brought up the culture war legislation that’s proliferating these days in conservative states like Louisiana. Did the candidates for governor worry, the questioner asked, that our state could get a reputation as unwelcoming?
The answer from Republicans on stage, as I recall, was something along the lines of a collective blank stare — and, when it was time to speak, a group declaration that of course Louisiana is welcoming, that in fact Louisianans are about the friendliest, most hospitable people you’ll ever meet!
Sure, that’s true. But it’s not exactly the point.
It should be obvious on its face that a state’s people can be warm and welcoming, even as the state’s policies are cold and cruel.
It also should be obvious that, at a time of alarming population loss, both matter.
I should note that Jeff Landry skipped the event where this question was asked, and most other forums that included his opponents.
But he, as much or more than any of them, has embraced the policies in question, both as attorney general and now as governor. Landry has enabled efforts to crack down on libraries that provide materials in which all young people can see their own experiences, cheered harsh abortion laws that risk criminalizing doctors acting in good faith to help their patients and treated transgender youth as potential predators, not vulnerable kids trying to avoid being bullied.
Among the “major wins” he announced from the legislative session that just ended, Landry’s office listed bills to limit which pronouns kids can use and discussion of gender and sexuality in schools, and also to unnecessarily label a pair of common medications that can be used to induce abortion — but that are also used to ease labor and treat miscarriage — as dangerous controlled substances. He even sent out a separate press release championing the so-called “Women’s Safety and Protection Act,” which is actually what’s generally referred to as a bathroom bill restricting which facilities transgender people can use.
I was thinking of all this last week while listening to Landry and an A-list of state and regional officials and business leaders talk about their plans for the upcoming Super Bowl in New Orleans.
The group aims to spiff up the city and put on a great show, and it’s encouraging to see the level of attention, investment and coordination that’s planned. That Louisiana friendliness, of a piece with the great food and music and culture, will be on full display.
I started to feel that same disconnect as at that forum, though, when the officials on the Saenger Theatre stage started talking of using the occasion to show not just that New Orleans can stage great big events but also to lure economic investment.
As Michael Hecht, president of Greater New Orleans, Inc. and coordinator of Super Bowl preparations, said, “We have an opportunity to tell stories about New Orleans in Louisiana, and go beyond the typical cliches.” He and Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Susan Bourgeois talked of showcasing the state’s energy and tech and aerospace industries, as well as trade opportunities offered by the Mississippi River. They and Landry made it clear that they’re approaching the Super Bowl as a once-in-a-lifetime recruiting session.
But again, there’s more to the story.
People who’d work for these companies, the types of people who can choose where they want to live, will do their due diligence. They’ll look at the quality of life they and their families can expect here, their access to a full array of health care, what their kids will experience at school. And for too many, the laws Louisiana is busy passing will signal that they’re not welcome.
Politicians regularly talk about making Louisiana more appealing by changing the tax structure and bringing down the cost of insurance — the second of which would surely help more than the first. But around the state Capitol, concerns over whether these social issue bills create needless headwinds are largely met with the usual blank stares.
I wish the business recruiters well in their quest to “win Super Bowl LIX” for New Orleans and Louisiana. I’m sure everyone reading this does.
I just really wish the politicians in Baton Rouge had given them better field position.