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Thursday, December 22, 2016

N.C. leaves transgender bathroom law as it is

The North Carolina Senate on Wednesday voted down a repeal of the state's controversial transgender bathroom law, Bruce Henderson and Jim Morrill report for The Charlotte Observer. "The state House adjourned without voting on repeal of the bill that has cost North Carolina millions of dollars in lost jobs, sports events and boycotts. With that, the hope of compromise between legislators and Charlotte, which enacted the ordinance that gave rise to HB2, dissolved."

Republican Senate leader Phil Berger blamed Democratic Gov.-elect Roy Cooper for the repeal failing to pass, reports The Observer. He told reporters, “I think Roy Cooper tried to do everything he could to sabotage a reasonable compromise." Berger claims that Cooper "called Democratic senators and urged them not to support Berger’s bill, which would have coupled HB2’s repeal with a months-long moratorium on city ordinances" like the one Charlotte repealed this week, allowing transgender people to use the public restrooms of the gender with which they identify.

Cooper, who beat Republican Gov. Pat McCrory in November partly on his stance against the law, told reporters Wednesday "that Republican leaders 'broke the deal' to fully repeal HB2 in return for Charlotte’s action," reports The Observer. He said, “I told (Democratic legislators) to stick to this deal. What (Republicans) were trying to do was tack on something that wouldn’t work. They didn’t have the guts to put the (repeal) bill out on the floor by itself.”

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