North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory says he wants to make changes to state’s controversial anti-gay law.

“After listening to people’s feedback for the past several weeks on this issue, I have come to the conclusion that there is a great deal of misinformation, misinterpretation, confusion, a lot of passion and frankly, selective outrage and hypocrisy, especially against the great state of North Carolina,” said McCrory yesterday.

“Based upon this feedback, I am taking action to affirm and improve the state’s commitment to privacy and equality.”

The changes allow non-government businesses to set their own bathroom policies, while government buildings must maintain a “common sense, gender-specific” policy, reports Towleroad.

McCrory’s suggested changes to the law (HB2) would also allow LGBTs the right to sue in state court over discrimination, although this would require legislative approval, reports BBC.

The law attracted criticism from LGBT activists worldwide, as well as drawing sanctions from pro-LGBT business. Paypal, Deutsche Bank, Hulu and a host of other businesses, as well as singer Bruce Springsteen, have all cancelled plans for expansion in the state after the law was signed by McCrory.

North Carolina is not the only American state to initiate anti-gay legislation in recent times: on April 6, Mississippi passed a ‘religious freedom’ law which allows individuals, institutions and businesses to deny service to people – like gay couples – if serving them would violate their religious beliefs on marriage and gender.

A similar ‘religious conscience’ bill proposed in Georgia was later vetoed by the state’s governor after Disney, Viacom and others threatened to abandon lucrative operations in the state if the bill passed.