N.C. Gubernatorial Candidate Vows to Enforce Bathroom Policies

North Carolina’s lieutenant governor — a leading contender for governor — says he’ll make sure transgender women who use women’s restrooms “will be arrested,” suggesting they “find a corner outside somewhere.”

Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson made the vow at a Feb. 3 campaign event.

“We’re going to defend women in this state,” Robinson said, video of the remarks showed. “That means if you’re a man on Friday night, and all of a sudden Saturday you feel like a woman and you want to go in the women’s bathroom in the hall, you will be arrested — or whatever we got to do to you.”

At another campaign stop that day, he repeated the stance, telling voters “if you are confused [about which bathroom to use], find a corner outside somewhere. I’m sorry, we’re not tearing society down because of this.”

Robinson’s campaign had no immediate comment, WRAL reported.

Robinson — the leading candidate for the GOP nomination for governor — first came into the public spotlight in 2018 with a speech about gun rights at a meeting of the Greensboro City Council went viral, the Associated Press reported.

He was elected North Carolina’s first Black lieutenant governor in 2020, and in April 2023 announced his run for governor.

Former President Donald Trump endorsed Robinson in June, the Washington Post reported — and polls show he’s ahead of two other GOP candidates competing for the nomination.

Current Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper is term-limited.

Robinson’s GOP rival, state treasurer Dale Folwell, told the Washington Post he believes “that only girls should be in girls’ bathrooms” but criticized Robinson for using the issue, telling the outlet: “Mark Robinson is history’s latest example of someone trying to rise to power through hate.”