North Carolina Senate leader Phil Berger has accused Governor-elect Roy Cooper of “killing” repeal of a controversial law that targets the LGBT community.

Republicans responded to passage of an LGBT protections ordinance in Charlotte with passage of House Bill 2, which blocks enforcement of Charlotte's ordinance and other cities and municipalities from enacting similar laws. HB 2 is also the only state law in the nation that prohibits transgender people from using the bathroom of their choice. The legislation is often called the “bathroom bill.”

Support for the law is widely believed to have contributed to Republican Governor Pat McCrory's narrow loss to Roy Cooper, a Democrat who pledged to repeal the law.

Earlier this week, Charlotte agreed to repeal its ordinance in exchange for repeal of House Bill 2 and McCrory called lawmakers into a special session to deal with the issue.

But the session ended without repeal, leading to numerous accusations about who is to blame.

Senate leader Phil Berger, a Republican, blamed Cooper, saying that he had told Democrats to vote down repeal.

“On the heels of the Charlotte City Council's repeal of their radical ordinance forcing men into women's bathrooms and shower facilities, Senate Republicans offered legislation to hit reset on the issue by fully repealing HB2 and putting in place a cooling-off period on radical bathroom sharing ordinances like Charlotte's ordinance that prompted HB2. Senate Democrats did not support this,” Berger's office said in a statement.

“Make no mistake: Roy Cooper and Senate Democrats killed the repeal of HB2, abandoning Roy Cooper’s commitment to avoid divisive social issues by shooting down a temporary cooling off period on ordinances like the one that got us into this mess last March,” said Berger. “Their action proves they only wanted a repeal in order to force radical social engineering and shared bathrooms across North Carolina, at the expense of our state’s families, our reputation and our economy.”

Cooper called the failure to repeal the law a “disappointment.”

“I know there were enough Democratic and Republican votes in the House and in the Senate to fully repeal House Bill 2 if they had just been given a chance,” Cooper said during a press conference. “The Republican legislative leaders have broken their word to me and they have broken their trust with the people of North Carolina.”

Republicans also blamed Charlotte, saying that city leaders did not fully repeal their ordinance. While councilors denied the claim, they did convene a special session on Wednesday to make further changes to the law.

House Bill 2 has been protested since its passage in March and has been blamed for numerous job losses and canceled conventions and sports and entertainment venues.