The latest blow for North Carolina in the wake of its controversial transgender "bathroom" bill came Thursday, when the National Basketball Association announced that the league would pull the 2017 All-Star game from Charlotte.
The bill, which requires people to use the bathroom associated with the gender on their birth certificate and prevents cities from passing non-discrimination ordinances for the LGBT community, has prompted several businesses and entertainment acts to cancel events and pull employees out of North Carolina.
Yet, in West Virginia, Republicans have doubled down on the bathroom issue, along with other so-called religious freedom bills, despite the backlash North Carolina and other states that have passed similar laws have faced.
The platform passed by delegates to the West Virginia Republican Party's convention earlier this summer stresses that marriage is between "one genetic man and one genetic woman," opposes policies that would give same-sex marriage equal footing with traditional marriage, opposes any policies that would "promote the homosexual agenda," affirmed support of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and supported individuals using the locker room or bathroom corresponding to their genetic sex.
Two West Virginia lawmakers are already pushing for the governor to call a special session to pass a bill that would limit the bathrooms people could use based on their gender.
And while RFRA failed in the Senate last session, after state Senate Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael and the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce came out against the bill, some Republicans are hoping that it makes another appearance.
"I hope RFRA comes back," said Melody Potter, the national committeewoman for the West Virginia Republican Party. "Because RFRA was hijacked by the gay lobby and, unfortunately, some of our legislators were intimidated."
Potter is also a member of the Republican National Platform Committee, which passed a socially conservative platform that denounced same-sex marriage and endorsed parents' rights to use conversion therapy on their kids.
West Virginia Republican Party Chairman Conrad Lucas said he hasn't talked to any legislators about the bill but that the party would be supportive if RFRA and a bathroom bill were introduced.
When Lucas read the platform out loud at the state convention, most of the anti-LGBT stances were applauded by the delegates in attendance.
Carmichael, R-Jackson, couldn't be reached for comment on whether the bill has a chance of making it out of the Senate in the next session. With current state Senate President Bill Cole running for governor, Carmichael would be next in line to lead the Senate next session. He overcame a challenge in the Republican primary from a candidate who criticized him for his RFRA stance, and now faces Democrat Brian Prim in November's election.
After he helped pass an amendment that gutted the RFRA bill in the Senate this year, Carmichael said he didn't think the bill's sponsors intended to discriminate against anybody.
"But I felt that the effect of that could be construed as some people feeling unwelcome or discriminated [against]," Carmichael said at the time. "And it just breaks your heart, because we want to welcome everybody and encourage everybody to live out their dreams and goals and aspirations and have the human dignity and value of every life."
Steve Roberts, the president of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce, said he doesn't think the bill will be back.
"We think that the bill got such a frosty reception in the West Virginia Senate that it would be hard to bring it back any time in the near future," Roberts said.
In addition to the North Carolina backlash, when Indiana passed a religious freedom bill in 2015, a tourism group, called Visit Indy, estimated that the state lost up to $60 million in economic benefits before Indiana Gov. Mike Pence - now the Republican nominee for vice president - weakened the law.
Roberts said he is concerned about similar consequences in West Virginia.
"We would continue to vigorously oppose the bills," he said.
The socially conservative wing of the Republican Party doesn't seem to be deterred, and its views on gay marriage fall in line with the majority of Republicans in America. Only 33 percent of Republicans support gay marriage, according to polling by the Pew Research Center, even as national support for gay marriage has grown over the past 20 years.
According to a 1996 Gallup poll, 27 percent of those surveyed thought gay marriage should be valid. In the most recent 2016 poll, 61 percent of Americans surveyed supported gay marriage.
The data do not convince Potter, a Kanawha County resident.
"The majority of Americans believe that marriage is between a man and a woman, despite what the bogus polls say," Potter said, without saying why she thought the polls were flawed.
Lucas isn't worried about anti-gay language scaring away people from the Republican Party, referencing the fact that many voters have become Republicans in recent years.
In 2014, Republicans won the state House of Delegates and the Senate for the first time in decades.
"The Republican Party of West Virginia has grown by leaps and bounds lately," Lucas said.
It's also a message that has not deterred voters across the country. Since 2010, the Republican Party has picked up more than 900 state legislative seats, according to The Washington Post.
Potter said these laws aren't about discrimination and that LGBT activists have "politicized the issue."
"We believe in treating everyone with dignity and kindness," she said.
Reach Daniel Desrochers at dan.desrochers@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4886 or follow @drdesrochers on Twitter.