NOM Ad Accuses North Carolina Gov. Candidate Of Enabling Sexual Assault Against Minors

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory has been locked in a tight re-election race with his Democratic opponent, state Attorney General Roy Cooper, with McCrory’s support for the anti-LGBT law HB2 emerging as a key issue in the campaign.

McCrory signed HB2, which bars local governments from enacting LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinances, after the city of Charlotte enacted such a measure. Supporters of HB2 latched onto the issue of transgender people being allowed to use the restroom that matches their gender identity to drum up opposition to nondiscrimination protections.

While HB2 is widely unpopular in the state, McCrory’s allies at the National Organization for Marriage and the North Carolina Values Coalition released an ad today attacking Cooper for opposing the law.

In the ad, the two Religious Right groups say that if Cooper is successful in repealing HB2, “registered sex offenders could follow women or young girls into the bathroom or locker-room—and no one could stop them.”

“Protect women’s privacy, prevent danger: Say no to Roy Cooper and his bathroom plan. It goes too far,” the narrator says. The ad then shows a man opening the door of a bathroom stall and walking in on a young girl.