COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – Proposals that critics say limit the rights of LGBT people are part of a backlash across the historically conservative South against the U.S. Supreme Court decision that effectively legalized gay marriage.
Those proposals are finding opponents, however, where they once might have had allies, including from other conservatives. And the region has also undergone a cultural shift since many states passed bans on gay marriage.
Mississippi’s governor signed a bill similar to one vetoed in Georgia that allows businesses and some government officials to refuse serving gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people. Laws that restrict how transgender people can use restrooms have been proposed in South Carolina and Tennessee. And North Carolina passed a law that bans cities and counties from passing anti-discrimination ordinances.