'Air horn' protest gets louder after new McCrory HB2 ad
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- Many of the diehard air horn orchestra demonstrators gathered outside the Executive Mansion had already seen or heard about the governor's new TV ad focusing on House Bill 2.
In the ad, Gov. Pat McCrory pushes back against his critics. The orchestra's response? Just play louder.
And, so the band played on for the 22nd consecutive week. It was sounding off against HB2 and McCrory's continued support for the controversial law they say discriminates against LGBT North Carolinians.
The fight took a new turn Wednesday when the governor released his latest campaign ad.
"When we were out raising average teacher pay, creating jobs, and cutting taxes, other folks were actually pushing to make our schools allow boys to use the girl's locker room and showers," McCrory says in the ad. "Are we really talking about this?"
"I'm not at all surprised to hear him using that kind of rhetoric," said air horn organizer Tina Haver Currin. "That's been his case from the beginning. I think it illustrates a deep misunderstanding of the issues. The fact is that it's not boys being in the girl's locker room, it's girls being in the girl's locker room."
Hope Tyler joined the protest on this particular Wednesday night.
"(McCrory's) doing nothing but fearmongering and it's wrong," Tyler said about the governor's campaign ad.
Tyler's transgender son, Kai, transitioned a year and a half ago. Kai uses the boy's restrooms and locker rooms at Sanderson High in Raleigh. She says Kai been welcomed by his classmates and Wake County School officials.
(The governor's argument) is nonsense. This is about not having discrimination in North Carolina and just acceptance," Tyler said.
Read all ABC11 stories about HB2 here
"Does this desire to be politically correct outweigh our children's privacy and safety? Not on my watch," McCrory goes on to say in the ad.
He's doubling down on HB2 despite troubling re-election poll numbers.
McCrory's opponent, Attorney General Roy Cooper, leads by a point in the latest PPP poll. And 43 percent of voters say they're less likely to vote for McCrory because of his handling of HB2, compared to 31 percent who say they're more likely.
Air horn orchestra organizers conceded Wednesday night that they're frustrated that after five-and-a-half months of weekly protests, HB2 seems no closer to being repealed.
They're pledging to continue until Election Day, when they will be pushing for the governor's defeat.
