WASHINGTON, D.C. — Lt. Gov. Dan Forest spoke at the annual Values Voter Summit, hosted by the Family Research Council on Sept. 9-11, and made defending HB2 against its critics the core of his speech.
“The color of a person’s skin has absolutely nothing to do with what bathroom they use,” Forest said, reports The Washington Blade. “The color of a person’s skin has absolutely nothing to do with where they sit on a bus or where they sit at the lunch counter, or what water fountain they drink out of it. But you know what? A person’s biology has everything to with which bathroom they use.”
“Pretty unthinkable in this day and age what’s going in the world today that many people on the progressive left think that bathroom policy is the issue of the day,” he added.
Forest drew applause when he called the law “common sense in America,” saying it provides protections for those “who fear for their safety.”
Related: Gov. McCrory heckles only openly gay member of NCGA over loss of NBA All-Star Game
He, like Gov. McCrory has done, expressed dismay at the NBA’s decision to move the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte over objections to HB2.
“Major corporations, major sports teams, the NBA standing against those who are standing up for such things?” Forest said. “That was unimaginable 30 years ago.”
He claimed that Charlotte’s non-discrimination ordinance did away with bathrooms segregated by gender, which Politifact found to be untrue when he previously made the same statement.
He noted that North Carolina is a swing state and that he believed the passing of the ordinance was the result of a “political agenda” and saying the Human Rights Campaign pressured the business community to put forth a “sexual revolution, social engineering experiment.”
Forest also criticized the Obama administration for filing a lawsuit against the state over HB2 and threatening to pull federal funding under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which he called “complete extortion.”
“Dan Forest has time and time again proven himself to be out of touch with real North Carolina values, which is why I doubt the good people of this state will reelect him,” Rep. Chris Sgro said. “The Charlotte ordinance protecting gay and transgender people against discrimination was, in fact, a common-sense best practice already in place in hundreds of other cities across the nation. Forest will go down in the history books as someone who stood against equality, and time will not be kind to his legacy.”
Related: HB2 does not absolve employers of LGBT discrimination liability
“Gov. McCrory and his allies would rather blame anyone but themselves for their obsession with a problem that doesn’t exist instead of dealing with the real and urgent challenges facing North Carolina,” JoDee Winterhof, vice president for policy and political affairs at the Human Rights Campaign, said. “Countless business leaders have spoken out to say that discrimination has no place in North Carolina and asked that HB2 be repealed. Everybody knows the real goal of HB2 was to target LGBTQ people for discrimination, which is one reason why Pat McCrory and Dan Forest are being rejected by voters in North Carolina.”
Voter imposed term limits make common sense. Every eligible voter needs to go to the polls so Patty boy and his crew of ‘good ole boys’ can be sent home to find real jobs.
Patty boy already has a job waiting. Why do you think he wouldn’t force Duke Energy to clean up the coal ash pollution they made?
He’s probably still being paid by them under the Governor’s’ desk.
Why do these defenders of HB2 never mention the transmen whose birth certificates list them as female who would be forced into the women’s facilities?
Why do these haters and bigots never mention the male predators that share public facilities with your sons?
He and his cronies need to be hit upside the head. With a ballot box