North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory called out New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Thursday, saying his travel ban to state is hypocritical.
McCrory is facing backlash over a new state law that many say is anti-gay. The Republican governor joined Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” Thursday morning to explain the new law. According to McCrory, the move by North Carolina’s legislature simply overturns a city ordinance allowing a man to use women’s facilities — such as bathrooms or showers — if wanted.
According to McCrory, “It’s up to businesses to make that determination, not the government […] We firmly believe that if you’re a man and you have the anatomy of a man you shouldn’t use the women’s restroom shower or locker room facility. It’s basic common sense. It’s etiquette of privacy.”
The “political correct police” have attacked him and his state “unfairly,” McCrory explained, citing the NCAA Final Four mens’ basketball championship taking place in Houston, where voters rejected legislation last November which many said would have prevented discrimination against transgender people.
“[A]nd there are no protests for boycotts of Houston, Texas, during the Final Four basketball tournament. Nor should there be,” McCrory said. “So none of these corporations that are now criticizing North Carolina, they’re all going to be advertising during the NCAA championship, and there’s a lot of corporate and political and media elite hypocrisy about this. It’s really sad.”
This weekend’s Final Four is against the Villanova Wildcats, Oklahoma Sooners. McCrory’s home-state Tar Heels and Cuomo’s state’s Syracuse Orange.
Cuomo has since banned all official state travel to North Carolina in the wake of the new law, which McCrory called “demagoguery at its worst.”
“Is the type of democracy we’re going to have where you go to Cuba and then you tell citizens not to come to North Carolina?” McCrory asked. “First of all, a lot of New Yorkers already moved to North Carolina, has made North Carolina their permanent home. I’m sorry, Gov. Cuomo, but that’s a fact. Maybe it’s because we believe in just common-sense privacy laws, and by the way we also are against any types of discrimination, but that doesn’t mean we overturn basic common-sense expectations of privacy that men and women and children expect when they go to a locker room or a restroom or a shower facility. This is ridiculous.”
Cuomo earlier in the week said the North Carolina action “strips LGBT people of their rights,” which cannot be compared to his trip to Cuba which he called “steps to help change long-standing practices in a foreign country.” Cuba is known for being anti-LGBT.
McCrory said Cuomo should boycott his own state because it has its own problems — and doesn’t have any anti-discrimination laws itself.
“We’re [North Carolina is] not in favor of discrimination, but we do favor common-sense privacy laws just like the city of Houston does. Go Tarheels. Go Tarheels,” McCrory concluded.
Watch the full interview below.
