N. Carolina AG won’t defend transgender law

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina’s attorney general said Tuesday he won’t defend in court a new state law preventing Charlotte and other local governments from approving protections for LGBT people, calling it discriminatory and a “national embarrassment.”

Democrat Roy Cooper made the announcement during a news conference a day after gay rights advocates sued to overturn the law approved last week and signed by Republican Gov. Pat McCrory.

The federal lawsuit lists Cooper among the defendants because of his official position as the state’s top lawyer.

“Not only is this new law a national embarrassment, it will set North Carolina’s economy back if we don’t repeal it,” Cooper said.

McCrory is also a defendant in the lawsuit and has doubled down on justifying his decision to sign the law, even as many corporations have criticized it publicly. Cooper said the law will cost the state jobs and millions of dollars.

Cooper’s announcement raises the stakes for the November governor’s race, in which Cooper is challenging McCrory. National Democrats consider it their best chance to pick up a governorship. The GOP-led Legislature and McCrory approved the law because they say Charlotte went too far with a local ordinance letting transgender people use the restroom aligned with their gender identity. They have focused on the threat that sexual predators could use these kinds of rules to enter women’s bathrooms and locker rooms. Rights groups for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people have called these arguments bogus.