Netflix has decided not to film its forthcoming teen drama “OBX” in North Carolina largely because of the remaining anti-LGBQT clause in that state’s House Bill 2. That’s the so-called “Bathroom Bill,” which says that transgender people can only use public bathrooms that match the sex on their birth certificates.
The show is set in a fictional town in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, but, according to the Fayetteville Observer, it will be filmed in South Carolina instead. Show creator Jonas Pate, who grew up in North Carolina and now lives in Wilmington, pushed to get Netflix to shoot there, but the streaming company passed.
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“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 Observer. Netflix will spend some $60 million on the 10-episode series. “OBX” is expected to begin filming in the spring.
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewGilbert.