A new Netflix series set in North Carolina’s Outer Banks will be shot in South Carolina in protest of HB-142, a N.C. state law preventing cities from passing laws that protect trans folks’ access to public accommodations.

Jonas Pate, a Wilmington, N.C. resident and the creator of OBX, told the Fayetteville Observer that he wrote his coming-of-age tale with Wilmington in mind, but that Netflix decided not to film in the state due to HB-142.

The law repealed parts of HB-2, the controversial “bathroom bill” signed into law in 2016, which held that people could only use bathrooms in government buildings corresponding with the sex listed on their birth certificates.

Netflix’s decision to avoid North Carolina could make a difference, given that state legislators have previously bowed to corporate pressure against the law.

In 2017, the National Collegiate Athletic Association gave the state an ultimatum: repeal HB-2 or lose out on hosting championship events through 2022. A week later, legislators passed HB-142. The replacement law allows the city of Charlotte to keep its transgender protections in place, but it restricts other municipalities from passing pro-LGBTQ public accommodations laws until December 2020.

HB-142 was signed into law by Democratic N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper in March 2017.

“This tiny law is costing this town 70 good, clean, pension-paying jobs and also sending a message to those people who can bring these jobs and more that North Carolina still doesn’t get it,” Pate told the Fayetteville Observer.

Netflix has picked up OBX for 10 episodes due to begin filming this spring. Pate was sent to Charleston to scout locations last weekend, according to the newspaper.

Sources tell us that the series is indeed set to film in the area, but Netflix has not confirmed that bit of information as of Friday afternoon.

As far as protections in South Carolina go, the state may not explicitly ban LGBT equality laws, but it is one of just a few that have no hate crime law on the books. Charleston recently became the first municipality in the state to adopt an ordinance that would stiffen penalties for offenses deemed hate crimes. Charleston also has a law protecting access to public accommodations on the basis of gender identity.

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