Reaction is continuing to come in following the passage of House Bill 2 by the North Carolina General Assembly in a special session on Wednesday.

North Carolina 4th District US Congressman David Price has been critical of the legislation.

“That the General Assembly would come back and would just say that local communities can’t deal with this kind of discrimination, that’s reprehensible,” Price says.

Price also criticized the decision to push this bill through in a special session.

“They’re going to meet in a month anyway, of course,” Price said. “They didn’t need to spend all this money and go through all this to come back into session. And, of course, the purpose for which they’re coming back into session is profoundly disturbing and unworthy.”

The bill repeals the Charlotte City Council’s decision to extend the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance to LGBT individuals.

The bill also repeals local nondiscrimination ordinances across the state and removes abilities of local governments to regulate other areas, including instituting a living wage, prompting Price to ask, “How far does this go?”

Price said the bill will “give another blow to North Carolina’s reputation nationally as a progressive southern state.”

Price added this legislation will impact the state of North Carolina in ways the General Assembly did not anticipate.

“The word is out,” Price said. “This affects business recruitment. This affects the reputation and the well-being of our state. I think it’s hugely damaging.”

The new legislation drew the attention of the New York Times editorial board, which blasted the law on Friday, saying that lawmakers passed “an appalling, unconstitutional bill that bars transgender people from using public restrooms that match their gender identity and prohibits cities from passing antidiscrimination ordinances that protect gay and transgender people.”

The main concern from GOP lawmakers seems to be that the bill will allow adult male predators to go into the bathroom and changing rooms of females. The NYT editorial said “that threat exists only in the imagination of bigots.”

Many businesses located in, including Redhat, and that do business in the Tar Heel state – Google, Paypal, Bigoen, Dow and others – have also voiced opposition to the legislation.

The National Basketball Association is scheduled to host the NBA All-Star game in Charlotte in 2017. The league released a statement on Thursday saying it is “dedicated to creating an inclusive environment for all who attend our games and events.” The statement went on to say, “We are deeply concerned that this discriminatory law runs counter to our guiding principles of equality and mutual respect and do not yet know what impact it will have on our ability to successfully host the 2017 All-Star Game in Charlotte.”

The NCAA just held first and second round NCAA Tournament games in Raleigh, but now says it is monitoring events in cities where it plants to hold its sporting events. The tournament is scheduled to come back to North Carolina cities in each of the next two years.

The ACLU of North Carolina has announced that the group, along with other advocacy organizations, is considering a legal challenge to North Carolina’s “sweeping anti-LGBT” bill.

Price said that “we’re going to have to have an election that turns thing around.” The NYT editorial, meanwhile, stated that opinion a little more bluntly, “Voters should reject the candidate who made the state a pioneer in bigotry.”

Listen below for Congressman Price’s conversation with WCHL’s Blake Hodge.