North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper on
Tuesday announced that he plans to issue an executive order extending
protections to the LGBT community.
“My goal is statewide LGBT
protections in North Carolina, and I'm going to keep fighting every
day until I get to that point,” Cooper said during a Q&A at a
conference sponsored by the Center for American Progress, a liberal
think tank located in Washington. “It would have been politically
and probably emotionally easier for me to keep pounding the table and
not accept a compromise but I knew it wasn't right.”
State lawmakers in March agreed to a
partial repeal of House Bill 2, which blocked cities and
municipalities from enacting LGBT protections and prohibited
transgender people from using the bathroom of their choice in many
buildings. The new law, House Bill 142, has been criticized because
it leaves bathroom regulation to the state and enacts a moratorium on
local LGBT ordinances until December 1, 2020.
“Diversity is our strength. North
Carolina is a welcoming state, and we just have to make sure our laws
catch up with our people, and we're going to get there,” Cooper, a
Democrat, is quoted as saying by WRAL.com.
In a phone interview with The
News & Observer, Cooper added: “I said when we repealed
HB2 and initiated the compromise, we needed to take additional steps
to make sure we protect LGBT residents. We're working on an
executive order that will help further those goals.”
A Cooper spokeswoman would not
elaborate on the order.