Former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, the man responsible for signing the anti-LGBTQ HB 2 into law, says he’s now having trouble finding consulting work because of his support for that bill.
In a podcast interview with WORLD, an Asheville-based evangelical Christian news site, McCrory said that “people are reluctant to hire me, because ‘oh my gosh, he’s a bigot’ — which is the last thing I am.”
Yet despite the alleged backlash the former governor is receiving, he continues to defend the decision to sign HB 2 into law, arguing that pro-LGBTQ advocates, or those he derides as the “intolerant Left,” are trying to radically alter social norms by changing the definition of gender.
“It’s almost Orwellian, that if you disagree with the politically correct thought police on this new definition of gender, youβre a bigot, youβre the worst of evil,” McCrory told WORLD. “It’s almost as if I broke a law.”
“On the issue of gender, I think it’s a well-established definition,” he added. “You know, it’s the doctor who determines the gender of a baby. You ask the doctor if it’s a boy or a girl; you don’t ask the baby.”
With regard to his employment situation, McCrory told the News & Observer that he was considered for part-time teaching positions at yet-unnamed universities, but that academic leaders wouldn’t hire him for fear of backlash from students.
“That’s not the way our American system should operate — having people purged due to political thought,” McCrory told the paper.
McCrory noted that he’s done some consulting and served in advisory board positions, which he had done prior to his election as governor. He has also had “ongoing discussions” with the Trump administration about a possible position, but nothing has come to fruition.
But Democrats, who clashed with McCrory over the passage of HB 2, appear to have little sympathy for the governor.
“North Carolina has already lost hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity and thousands of jobs as a direct result of House Bill 2,” said North Carolina Democratic Party spokesman Mike Gwin, “but I guess we can start adding Gov. McCrory’s career to the total as well.”
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