Andy Rain/Reuters
President Obama addressed anti-LGBT laws in North Carolina and Mississippi for the first time on Friday, calling the pieces of legislation “mean-spirited.”
“I also think that the laws that have been passed there are wrong and should be overturned and they’re in response to politics in part and some strong emotions that are generated by people,” Obama said during a Friday press conference with U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron in London. Obama added that the laws, which ban transgender people from using their preferred bathrooms in North Carolina, and allow people to deny service to LGBT people in Mississippi, are not representative of overall American sentiment.
“I think it’s fair to say we’re not unique among countries, where particularly under a federal system in which power is disbursed, that there are going to be some localities, or local officials that put forward laws that aren’t necessarily reflective of a national consensus,” he said.