Gov. Roy Cooper promotes consensus while demanding a repeal of HB2

RALEIGH -- Gov. Roy Cooper in his inaugural address Saturday urged consensus on issues such as education and health care, while promising to fight laws that make anyone “less in the eyes of their fellow citizens.”

Cooper, a Democrat, extolled North Carolina’s history as a leader in public education and civil rights while encouraging a look to the future. Cooper decried partisan fighting and the legislature’s interest in taking on divisive social questions as he returned to the contentious issue of HB2, a law passed with overwhelming support in the Republican-led legislature last year that limits LGBT protections. The law also requires transgender people to use bathrooms in government buildings that correspond to the gender on their birth certificates. An attempt in late December to repeal the law failed.

Unlike some ceremonial addresses that rely on gauzy platitudes, Cooper used the speech that officially launched his governorship as a platform to frame specific, controversial policy issues.

He again engaged the argument for repealing HB2.

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