We recently reported on a pair of get-out-the-vote ads from an adorable couple of 50 years, Lennie Gerber and Pearl Berlin, who fought for the right to marry in North Carolina, challenging the state’s constitutional amendment defining marriage as only between a man and woman.
In one of those ads, the couple declared their support for Hillary Clinton. Now Lennie and Pearl are back with a new video from TurnOUT NC, a project of the Human Rights Campaign and Equality North Carolina, in which they back Attorney General Roy Cooper, who is challenging Gov. Pat McCrory in his reelection bid.
The race has been largely centered around the anti-LGBTQ law HB2, which McCrory signed and has been defending against attacks from Cooper, who has refused to defend it in court and is calling for its repeal. The law requires transgender individuals to use the bathrooms and locker rooms matching the gender on their birth certificates in government owned buildings and invalidated nondiscrimination ordinances across the state. It also capped the state’s minimum wage.
Gerber talks about the congratulatory phone call she and Berlin received from Cooper after their marriage was legalized.
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“That just shows how supportive he has been. I said to him, ‘Well, I hope the next time I talk to you I will say Governor Cooper.’ He’s a good man,” Gerber said.
“Lennie and Pearl are proof that despite overwhelming challenges, love will always trump hate,” said HRC President Chad Griffin in a statement. “In North Carolina, thousands of pro-equality voters like Lennie and Pearl have the opportunity to defeat Pat McCrory and send pro-equality champion Roy Cooper to Raleigh to help repeal the discriminatory HB2.”
“My friends Lennie and Pearl said it best, ‘The prejudice that still exists is very sad to me,'” said Equality North Carolina Executive Director Chris Sgro. “This isn’t representative of North Carolina values. It’s time for LGBTQ voters to send a message to Pat McCrory and his cronies in Raleigh that we are better than this, and we deserve better from our elected leadership. I hope everyone joins Lennie, Pearl, and me in voting for Roy Cooper.”
Watch the ad below.
