North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory has
claimed that litigation has made his state's anti-LGBT “irrelevant.”
Approved during a one-day special
session in March, House Bill 2 prohibits transgender people from
using the bathroom of their choice in government buildings, including
schools, and blocks cities and municipalities from enacting measures
that protect LGBT people from discrimination.
McCrory's support for the law has
helped Attorney General Roy Cooper gain ground in his bid to unseat
the incumbent, who is currently trailing by 9 percentage points
according to a Monmouth University poll.
During an interview with conservative
commentator Marc Rotterman, McCrory said that the law he signed was
no longer pertinent because of a lawsuit filed by numerous states
challenging the Obama administration's directive to schools on
transgender bathroom use.
“This is all going to the Supreme
Court, so when the media keeps talking about HB2, HB2's irrelevant
because now 21 other states are suing the federal government along
with the state of North Carolina,” McCrory
said.
McCrory blamed the Human Rights
Campaign (HRC) for the uproar surround passage of the law.
“It was very planned and strategic by
a group called the HRC, which has made North Carolina the epicenter
of gender identity rights in restrooms, locker rooms and showers in
our schools,” he said.
An HRC spokesman told the Washington
Blade that the law is “anything but irrelevant.”
“It's a hateful, discriminatory bill
that has cost taxpayers millions and damaged the state's economy and
reputation,” Jay Brown said. “And it's a threat to the safety of
more than 40,000 transgender people who live in North Carolina.”