Obama urges tourism despite anti-gay laws

The president invites Britons to Mississippi and North Carolina amid controversy.

LONDON — President Obama joined the chorus of those condemning new laws in North Carolina and Mississippi as anti-gay but reassured would-be tourists Friday that they were still welcome and would be treated warmly in the South.

Obama’s remarks, made alongside British Prime Minister David Cameron at a news conference in London, came amid an uproar over the laws that included an advisory from the British Foreign Office pointing out the laws to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender travelers who might be planning to travel to the southern U.S.

“You are welcome and you should come and enjoy yourselves,” Obama said. “I think you’ll be treated with extraordinary hospitality.”

Both states have seen hotel and other travel cancellations in recent weeks after the laws were enacted. The singer Bryan Adams canceled a concert, and actress Sharon Stone decided not to film a movie in Mississippi because of that state’s law allowing people to discriminate against LGBT people on religious grounds.

Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam and other artists have canceled shows in North Carolina after the passage of a law regulating access to bathrooms by transgender people.

The laws are wrong and should be overturned, Obama said.

When it comes to respecting the rights of everyone, he said, “it’s very important for us not to send signals that anybody is treated differently.”

Even so, he said, the states still welcome visitors.

“The people of North Carolina and Mississippi,” he said, “are wonderful people.”