EDEN, N.C. — In defending a law limiting protections for LGBT people, North Carolina’s powerful Republican Senate leader recently said that “folks back home” couldn’t understand the outcry that’s included loud demonstrations, and dozens of arrests, over the law.

Both Sen. Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore come from conservative districts where recent interviews with residents indicate they are both getting high marks for their leadership, if not for every provision of the wide-ranging law.

Mowing his lawn in Eden, where Berger lives, Jerry Davis said Thursday that it’s “common sense” to require people to use the bathroom corresponding to the sex on their birth certificate, as the law does.