US President
Barack Obama said Friday (22 April) that controversial anti-LGBTI laws recently
enacted in North Carolina and Mississippi should be repealed.
Obama,
appearing at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David
Cameron, made his strongest statements to date against the laws which have
resulted in growing backlash.
‘I … think that
the laws that have been passed there are wrong and should be overturned and
they’re in response to politics in part and some strong emotions that are
generated by people,’ Obama said.
North
Carolina’s HB2 law bans all local LGBTI rights ordinances in the state.
It was rushed
into law to override an ordinance in Charlotte that would have allowed
transgender people to use the bathroom of their gender identification.
Mississippi’s
HB 1523 is considered by LGBTI activists to be the worst of the anti-gay bills
currently under consideration by state legislatures in the US.
It legally
protects religious institutions should they decide to not recognize the
legality of same-sex marriages or refuse to place children with qualified,
deserving LGBTI families.
It also
protects state employees if they refuse to issue a marriage license to a
same-sex couple and sanctions the use of ‘conversion therapy’ to ‘cure’ LGBTI
people.
The Republican
governors in both states have remained defiant against critics and continue to
defend the laws.
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