Two Republican governors, two different calculations
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed a proposed religious freedom bill that pitted gay-rights groups and the business community against religious conservatives.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed a new law limiting LGBT protections in his state by overriding local anti-discrimination laws.
The two Republicans had different political calculations.
McCrory frames his action as protecting privacy standards, because it requires people to use multistall bathrooms that match their birth certificates at state agencies, schools and universities.
He faces voters this fall in a re-election effort against the state's Democratic attorney general.
In Georgia, Deal said he was preventing potential discrimination by rejecting a bill intended to protect individuals and businesses who declined to serve certain customers on religious grounds.
Deal almost certainly will never face voters again.