Republican State Senator Chuck Edwards late this week explained his vote against the repeal of HB 2, North Carolina’s controversial so-called “bathroom bill”.
While the General Assembly was in special session this week, called by Governor Pat McCrory for the specific purpose of repealing HB 2, Edwards, a local McDonald’s franchise owner, explained to WHKP News in text messages that “…the issue of who may use which public restroom and under what circumstances and their security needs to be resolved once and for all.”:
Edwards added, “I voted against the repeal of HB 2 against the wishes of many members of my own caucus and against many big businesses lobbyists…because solutions might be found at a later date.”
Casting one of his first votes as a state senator against repeal of the bill, Edwards summed it up by saying, “The bill that was presented did not offer a permanent solution to the problem. Instead it sought to hide the problem with only the hope that a permanent solution might be found”.
Charlotte City Council started the whole thing last year by passing an ordinance that opened all public bathroom to transgender individuals; the General Assembly came back and prohibited that with House Bill 2; a deal was supposedly struck that the legislature would repeal the state law if Charlotte would repeal their ordinance; that deal broke down in distrust and political rancoring and the state senate killed the deal on Wednesday.
Edwards replaced State Senator Tom Apodaca who retired after 12 years in the state senate last year.,
By WHKP News Director Larry Freeman 12/23/.16 4:24 am
