Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant joined the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins on his “Washington Watch” program yesterday to discuss the criticism he’s been receiving for a law he signed that permits businesses in the state to refuse services to LGBT people and others.

Perkins told Bryan that the ACLU is suing the state over the new law because it only cares about religious freedom claims “that don’t conflict with its sexual agenda.”

“Well, of course,” Bryant said. “I mean, they cherry-pick these issues. If they had any integrity at all, they would say, ‘We understand Mississippi is actually trying to make sure that Christians and people of other faiths are not discriminated against.’ It is a nondiscriminatory law. It prevents discrimination against simply that segment of the population that has a deeply held religious view about marriage.”

He added that his “dear friend Pat McCrory,” the governor of North Carolina, is facing similar backlash for a sweeping bill aimed at removing legal protections for LGBT people.

“And we’re criticized, we’re threatened, we’re bullied, we’re told by corporations that we’re doing the wrong thing?” he asked. “Where on earth have we come to simply say, ‘I do not wish my daughter in her school or in her university to have to have a male in the shower and in the dressing room and in the restrooms.’”

He said, however, that he had some hope: “I think the rest of the nation is beginning to wake up and say, ‘What world do they think we’re living in? This is not Hollywood, this is not more liberal areas, this is America, where common sense still prevails.’”