Trailing in Polls, Republican Downplays Horrific Anti-LGBT Measure

McCrory says #HB2 is now “irrelevant” because Supreme Court will now decide transgender bathroom issue. #ncpol https://t.co/ZnAe5XD1Wr â€” Colin Campbell (@RaleighReporter) September 1, 2016

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Republican North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory declared Thursday that the state’s anti-LGBT House Bill 2, which has cost it hundreds of millions of dollars, is “actually irrelevant.”Â

McCrory, who has championed the discriminatory law, made the statement in the wake of a recent poll that showed him trailing Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper, who opposes the measure, by nine points in his bid for re-election, The Washington Blade reports. The same poll found that seven in 10 North Carolina voters believe the bill has harmed the state’s reputation nationally.Â

â€œHB2 is actually irrelevant now because the Obama administration has given a directive through EEOC, through the Justice Department and to our universities basically saying if you do not recognize the concept of gender identity, the redefining of sex from the 1964 Civil Rights Act, you could lose your funding,â€ McCrory said.

â€œThis is all going to the Supreme Court, so when the media keeps talking about HB2, HB2â€™s irrelevant because now 21 other states are suing the federal government along with the state of North Carolina,â€ he added.

McCrory went on to accuse the media of overreacting to the law in response to a “planned and strategic” effort from the Human Rights Campaign. But he stood behind the principle of requiring trans people to use restrooms based on the sex they were assigned at birth.Â

â€œThe Obama administration with support of Attorney General Roy Cooper believe there must be a mandate on all of our schools and universities to allow a person who believes theyâ€™re of the other gender, but they still have the anatomy of one gender, to able be to use the restroom, shower and locker room of their choice as opposed to what weâ€™ve been doing in the past making reasonable accommodations,â€ McCrory said.

In other HB2 news, a trial in the federal lawsuits challenging the bill has been pushed back from November until May, the Associated Press reports.

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