RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The Latest on efforts at the North Carolina legislature to repeal or replace a state law limiting LGBT protections and which public restrooms transgender people can use (all times local):
8 p.m.
Another effort to craft legislation to get rid of North Carolina’s “bathroom’s bill” and halt more economic losses appears gone as Republicans and Democrats point fingers over whether an agreement ever existed.
The GOP-controlled legislature and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper have been trying to find a way to repeal House Bill 2 before the NCAA decides to leave the state out of hosting championship events through 2022. The NCAA had mentioned a deadline this week.
House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger said Tuesday evening that they had agreed to a plan from Cooper’s office that would repeal HB2 but include other provisions.
Berger said Cooper backed out of that plan.
The House Democratic leader said later there had been no formal offer and called the Republican leaders’ news conference a stunt because the GOP lacks the votes to pass a bill.
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4:35 p.m.
The top Republican in North Carolina’s executive branch is throwing a blunt counterpunch to the Democratic governor’s call to repeal the state’s “bathroom bill,” despite economic losses stemming from the legislation that’s stirred up fierce debates about gender.
Lt. Gov. Dan Forest is fighting efforts to repeal House Bill 2, the law limiting LGBT protections and requiring transgender people to use public restrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificate. Forest is a likely GOP candidate for governor in 2020.
The NCAA moved championship events out of North Carolina this year because of HB2 and could soon leave the state out of events through 2022.
Gov. Roy Cooper and Republican legislative leaders have been looking for a replacement, but Forest said they shouldn’t succumb to “economic and corporate extortion.”
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