Those who called for the repeal of North Carolina’s “bathroom bill” got what they wanted yesterday – and still, says pro-family leader Tony Perkins, they’re “absolutely livid” because it didn’t go far enough.

On Thursday, North Carolina lawmakers passed a measure repealing HB 2, which required people to use the bathroom or shower that corresponds to the sex on their birth certificate. There had been economic pressure – for example, the NCAA threatened a complete pullout from North Carolina without repeal, and there was pressure from its NBA team, the Charlotte Hornets. In addition, PayPal refused a planned expansion of its facility there.

The new bill – which has been labeled by both sides as a compromise – gives the state control of use of multi-stall restrooms and showers in public facilities and forbids local governments from passing their own anti-discrimination ordinances until 2020.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, describes the new bill as “HB 2 lite.”

“The legislature, [by] yielding to the NCAA and their threats and the corporate bullies, saying that they needed to repeal HB 2, actually took a step back,” he said on Washington Watch on Thursday.

“It really doesn’t do what the left wants,” Perkins continued. “It does not allow Charlotte to re-establish its bathroom policies. It basically says this issue is going to be put on hold until December 2020.”

But the radio program host added that “it’s always instructive” to watch how left-leaning agitators respond to such compromises. “They were the ones that were agitating for a repeal,” he noted. “Well, they got a repeal, and guess what? They are livid – absolutely livid.”

Former North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory (R), who signed HB 2 into law, was on Washington Watch yesterday. He said the good news is that the Human Rights Campaign still didn’t get what it wanted.

“… With their resources and power and money – and they’re trying to get some other corporations to help support them in the battle that they lost, the usual players out in California – the fact of the matter is [the HRC] did not get a full repeal of HB 2,” said McCrory.

“They do not have the power at the local level to change the definition of gender, which is really what it comes down to: Are we going to change the definition of gender or not? And that shouldn’t be a decision made by a mayor or a governor or by the NCAA.”

The former governor expects the matter to eventually end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

“… And hopefully with a new Supreme Court justice who has been nominated by President Trump, there will be a ruling in which we keep the definition of gender – as we’ve been using in the 1964 Civil Rights Act – for generations,” he concluded.

False narrative a factor

Tami Fitzgerald with the North Carolina Values Coalition was disappointed by the repeal. “… We thought it was a great law,” she tells OneNewsNow. “It was a compassionate, reasonable law that guaranteed that privacy and safety wouldn’t be violated in bathrooms.”

The family advocate argues that the repeal of H.B. 2 was based in part on a false argument that the law was causing economic damage to the state’s economy. She disputes that argument, saying there’s been no measureable impact to the state in its desire to protect women and girls in settings that are supposed to be private and safe.

“Since House Bill 2 was passed, we created over 30,000 jobs in the state. We’re creating jobs at the rate of 6,000 a month,” says Fitzgerald. “We’re ranked second by Forbes and Site Selection Magazine for business across the country, [and] we’re ranked third by Chief Executive magazine.”

After passage of HB 2 last year, North Carolina set a record in hotel room occupancy rates and in tourism.

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Copyright American Family News. Reprinted with permission.

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