The Governor of North Carolina has complained that he and his wife have lost lots of friends because of his anti-transgender law.

North Carolina has lost a string of big investment ventures over Governor Pat McCrory’s decision to sign the contentious HB 2 – which voided all local ordinances protecting LGBT rights, banned transgender people from using their preferred bathroom, and permits businesses to discriminate against LGBT people on the grounds of religious belief.

Some might say the biggest cost might be the huge economic impact on the state, or the LGBT people who now feel unsafe – but for McCrory, the biggest problem is apparently his social life.

McCrory, who is currently fighting a tough re-election battle against Democrat Roy Cooper, lamented losing friends in a speech to a listed anti-LGBT hate group, the Family Research Council.

He said: “There’s an Orwellian concept going on here, where what’s happening to me and my wife, and they plan to do this with other governors.

“They’re doing this to the business community. Is they’re purging any dissent on this issue. It’s almost like the George Orwell book 1984, where if you disagree with big brother, or you go against the thought police, if you remember that book, you will be purged and you will disappear.

“They purge you. And my wife, for example, in Charlotte, she primarily stays in Charlotte. She’s been disinvited to charity events, and basically, they call her up and they say, ‘you know, you better not come. You better not come’.”

He added that friends in the business community “just this week told me they cannot support me, although you’ve been an outstanding governor, we still cannot support you because HRC will attack us. And I’ve had at least 5 this week tell me that. At least 5. Good friends.

“Very good friends [have said] ‘Pat I love you, I love you man, we’ll be friends for life, I can’t support you’.”

He continued: “We’re being shunned for a political disagreement, a value disagre ement. And I’ll listen to the other side when they tell me, and I say I respectfully disagree with you, they do not say that to me. I wave to them with 5 fingers and they wave back with the one.”