North Carolina Governor Tries to Discount Growing Movement Against His Anti-LGBT Law

Several LGBT and civil rights groups joined together today to protest North Carolina’s anti-LGBT law HB2, and present Gov. Pat McCrory with their more than 185,000 signed petitions calling for the law’s repeal.

Rather than accept that he has plunged his state into a morass of economic and emotional distress and work to fix it, Gov. McCrory has insisted on attempting to diminish and discount any legitimate criticisms of the law.

In response to today’s 185,000+ petitions, McCrory issued a press releaseÂ titled, “Deception vs. Reality: Out-of-state special interest groups mislead media.”

“The anonymously-funded, national smear campaign led by the Human Rights Campaign is grossly misrepresenting information about the petitions delivered to State Capitol today,” McCrory’s statement on his website reads. “Contrary to the media reports, the activists only delivered enough petitions to fill two boxes and the overwhelming majority of signatures were from out-of-state.”

He went on to post photos of the boxes the groups had lined up as “proof” that 185,000 isn’t really 185,000, or, something, including this one:

In response, HRC posted a statement slamming McCrory.

“We had so many signatures on the petitions, we printed only the list of names rather than the 185,000 pages of individually signed petitions,” an HRC statement, posted to Twitter by Buzzfeed’s Dominic Holden, reads, noting that “thousands of these signatories are North Carolinians.”

After NC gov said LGBT groups misrepresented petitions to repeal anti-lGBT law, @HRC hits back with this statement: pic.twitter.com/886nI21ggl â€” Dominic Holden (@dominicholden) April 25, 2016

North Carolina, like many states, relies on tourism dollars to help meet its obligations. So do the people who work in North Carolina. If Gov. McCrory is suggesting that only the voices of North Carolinians matter, he should close down all the state’s tourism groups, and rework his budget, because hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of jobs have already been lost, and there will be more losses to come.

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EARLIER:

Breaking: Bill to Repeal North Carolina’s HB2 Has Been Filed

LOOK: Hundreds Rally at North Carolina Capitol Demanding Repeal of Anti-LGBT Law HB2 (Photos, Video)

Ted Cruz Stump Speech Now Includes Anti-Trans HB2 Bathroom ‘Joke’ About Trump Dressing Up As Hillary

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Image by Emma WrightÂ via TwitterÂ