N.C. vs. N.Y.: McCrory Tussles With Cuomo Over Transgender Bathroom Law Travel Ban
North Carolina Senate chamber
A discrimination vs. privacy debate
Facing fallout over a law that blocks transgender people from using public restroom and locker room facilities that do not match their birth gender, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory Thursday swiped at New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has barred certain state travel to the Tar Heel State.
“First of all, a lot of New Yorkers already moved to North Carolina, made North Carolina their permanent home,” McCrory quipped during an interview with Fox News. “I’m sorry Governor Cuomo… That’s a fact. And maybe it’s because we believe in just common sense privacy laws.”
North Carolina lawmakers in a special session last Wednesday passed the controversial, mostly Republican-backed legislation, and McCrory, who is also a Republican, signed it the same day. The law counteracted a nondiscrimination ordinance the Charlotte City Council approved in February, and would prevent local governments from enacting such measures.
Since McCrory signed the bill, the state has faced backlash from elected leaders and large companies.
“It’s amazing that the national politically correct police have descended upon my state and unfairly smeared my state,” McCrory said.
Cuomo signed an executive order on Monday barring all non-essential state travel to North Carolina. He was not alone. Among the other state and city leaders that imposed similar travel bans were Gov. Peter Shumlin of Vermont and Mayor Ed Murray of Seattle.
“We will not stand idly by as misguided legislation replicates the discrimination of the past,” Cuomo said in a statement on Monday.
Responding to Cuomo’s recent criticism, McCrory said during the Fox Interview: “It’s demagoguery at its worst."
McCrory also contrasted Cuomo’s stance toward North Carolina with the New York governor’s openness toward Cuba, a nation that has been criticized for its record on human rights.
And he highlighted that Syracuse University is set to play the University of North Carolina Tar Heels in the Final Four college basketball tournament in Houston. Voters in the Texas city last November rejected a nondiscrimination ordinance.
“There’s a lot of corporate and political and media-elite hypocrisy about this,” McCrory said. “It’s very sad.”
Check out the video clip here.
Bill Lucia is a Reporter at Government Executive's Route Fifty.
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