North Carolina lawmakers passed a law that will block cities and counties from passing protections against LGBT discrimination, in response to Charlotte's recently passed pro-LGBT measure.
HB 2, which passed the House 83-25 and 32-0 in the state Senate, sets a statewide anti-discrimination policy prohibiting employers and businesses from discriminating against employees or customers based on the classifications of race, color, country of origin, religion, age or "biological sex." Senate Democrats left the chamber before the vote.
In addition, the bill offers no protections for LGBT people, and prevents local governments from passing any nondiscrimination policy that goes beyond the statewide standard—and it even prevents cities and counties from raising the minimum wage.
Gov. Pat McCrory signed the bill March 23. Afterward, he tweeted, "Ordinance defied common sense, allowing men to use women's bathroom/locker room for instance. That's why I signed bipartisan bill to stop it."
The measure was brought up during a special session that raised eyebrows for costing $42,000 a day.
North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper criticized the anti-LGBT law, according to The New Civil Rights Movement. Cooper, a Democrat, said, "Discrimination is wrong, period. That North Carolina is putting discrimination into the law is shameful. Not only will this hurt North Carolina families, but it hurts our economy as well." He also cited Indiana's controversial religious-freedom bill, commenting how various business left that state or hesitated before bringing in new jobs.
A separate press release revealed that Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of North Carolina and Equality North Carolina are exploring legal challenges to the law. Chris Sgro, executive director of Equality NC, said, "This cruel and insulting bill is about more than bathroom access—it's about fairness in employment, education, and local governance. It aims to override local school board policies, local public accommodations laws, and more." Tara Borelli, senior attorney with Lambda Legal, added, "This law is in direct conflict with protections provided to students under Title IX and could cause the state to lose billions in federal funds."
The Democratic National Committee chair, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, said in another statement that the passing and signing of the law "is sadly unsurprising from a party that seems determined to stay stuck in the Stone Age on LGBT equality. ... Now the same state lawmakers who pretend to love limited government are steamrolling over local officials just because they had the courage to stand up for transgender rights. Our friends in the LGBT community deserve better and so do all the people of North Carolina."
From pro-equality groups Lambda Legal, ACLU and Equality NC
RALEIGH — Today, Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of North Carolina, and Equality North Carolina condemned North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signing into law a sweeping anti-LGBT measure, HB 2, and announced that the organizations are exploring legal challenges to the discriminatory law.
"We expect the ACLU's and Lambda Legal's Legal Help Desks will light up with calls from those who suffer discrimination imposed by this law, and we stand ready to help," said Tara Borelli, Senior Attorney with Lambda Legal. "This law is in direct conflict with protections provided to students under Title IX and could cause the state to lose billions in federal funds. Instead of solving any real problems, the law would create new ones and could lead to intolerable and unfair conditions for transgender students who are entitled, by federal law, to a safe and equitable education."
"Today was a devastating day for LGBT North Carolinians and particularly our transgender community members who have been subjected to months of distorted rhetoric culminating in today's display of bias and ignorance by North Carolina lawmakers. We are disappointed that Governor McCrory did not do right by North Carolina's families, communities, and businesses by vetoing this horribly discriminatory bill, but this will not be the last word," said Chris Brook, Legal Director of the ACLU of North Carolina. "The ACLU, Lambda Legal, and Equality NC are reviewing all options, including litigation."
"HB 2 is an undisguised attack on LGBT people and the efforts of one city to protect gay and transgender North Carolinians against discrimination," said Chris Sgro, Executive Director of Equality NC. "This cruel and insulting bill is about more than bathroom access, it's about fairness in employment, education, and local governance. It aims to override local school board policies, local public accommodations laws, and more. This law also violates many other federal statutes and the United States Constitution by attempting to mandate discrimination in government buildings"
To reach Lambda Legal's Help Desk visit: www.lambdalegal.org/help or call toll-free: 1-866-542-8336
To reach the ACLU of North Carolina for legal help, visit acluofnc.org/Ask-for-Help/get-legal-help.html, email intake@acluofnc.org . The National ACLU help line is 212-549-2627
From the Human Rights Campaign:
WASHINGTON — Tonight, the Human Rights Campaign ( HRC ), the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT ) civil rights organization, lambasted North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory for signing into law an outrageous and unprecedented anti-LGBT bill passed in rapid succession today by the North Carolina House and Senate. The appalling new law eliminates existing municipal non-discrimination protections for LGBT people; prevents such provisions from being passed by cities in the future; and forces transgender students in public schools to use restrooms and other facilities inconsistent with their gender identity, putting 4.5 billion dollars in federal funding under Title IX at risk.
The bill was rushed through the North Carolina House today, and then passed the Senate 32-0 after Senate Democrats walked out of the chamber in protest. Without even bothering to consult with businesses and real North Carolinians who will be adversely affected by the measure, Gov. McCrory quickly signed it into law in the dark of night after a one-day special session called for the sole purpose of pushing this discriminatory bill through. The heinous measure came in response to the Charlotte City Council passing local LGBT non-discrimination protections last month.
"Governor McCrory's reckless decision to sign this appalling legislation into law is a direct attack on the rights, well-being, and dignity of hundreds of thousands of LGBT North Carolinians and visitors to the state," said HRC President Chad Griffin. "This outrageous new law not only strips away the ability of local jurisdictions to protect LGBT people from discrimination, but it goes further and targets transgender students who deserve to be treated equally at school — not harassed and excluded. Governor McCrory's action will be judged sorely by history and serve as a source of deep shame, remorse, and regret. North Carolinians throughout the state, business leaders, and those who believe in basic human dignity, fairness, and equality must stand up and demand that lawmakers repeal this new law before it inflicts tremendous damage on the state and thousands of citizens and visitors."
Discrimination is a persistent problem for the LGBT community in North Carolina. The state is one of 32 states that lacks a fully inclusive statewide non-discrimination law that includes sexual orientation and gender identity. The National Center for Transgender Equality and the National LGBTQ Task Force reported that in a survey of transgender people living in North Carolina, half of respondents had been harassed or discriminated against in public places like hotels, restrooms, restaurants and other public services. The nearly 30,000 transgender students in North Carolina shouldn't have to suffer the consequences of a discriminatory law that will lead to even higher rates of harassment, bullying, and even suicide. A new academic study recently found a direct correlation between high rates of suicide in the transgender community and lack of equal access to public spaces.
In the hurried, single-day session convened today, public comment was extremely limited and members were given very little time to give this extraordinary bill the kind of scrutiny it deserved. In an attempt to rush the bill through, the House Committee limited speakers to two minutes and legislators only had five-minutes to review the bill. Contrast that with two years of deliberation by the Charlotte City Council, which heard hours of public comment from constituents on both sides and in fact campaigned on the issue during elections this past fall. The actions of the state legislature are insulting to the Charlotte City Council, Charlotte residents, the Mayor, and all local governments whose decisions are subject to irresponsible second-guessing at the taxpayer's expense.
The debate may have been rushed, but it didn't escape notice of businesses who decried the measure: Dow Chemical, the NCAA , RedHat, the League of Municipalities, and Biogen all spoke out against the bill.
North Carolina is now the first state in the country to enact such a law attacking transgender students, even after several similar proposals were rejected across the country this year — including a high-profile veto by the Governor of South Dakota on a very similar bill. North Carolina school districts that comply with the law will now be in direct violation of Title IX, subjecting the school districts to liability and putting an estimated $4.5 billion of federal funding at risk. This section of the law offers costly supposed solutions to non-existent problems, and it forces schools to choose between complying with federal law — plus doing the right thing for their students — or complying with a state law that violates students' civil rights. Read more about how this bill puts federal funding at risk here.
The Human Rights Campaign is America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. HRC envisions a world where LGBT people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.
From the National Center for transgender Equality:
Today, the North Carolina General Assembly went into a special legislative session for just one day to hurriedly pass a bill that attacks trans people and overrides local control in multiple public policy areas. Legislators originally proposed today's session to reverse the addition of LGBT protections to Charlotte's municipal nondiscrimination ordinance. However, the bill that they ended up passing does far more than that.
Lawmakers used the Charlotte ordinance as an excuse to overreach, restricting bathroom access in all public buildings—including public schools, public universities, and libraries - based on the sex listed on a person's birth certificate. This standard is especially damaging for trans students in public schools, who would be subjected to humiliation and health risks, making it impossible for them to learn effectively.
The bill also overrules LGBT protections in all municipalities, not just Charlotte, and blocks any future local LGBT nondiscrimination measures. In an extreme move, the bill also goes beyond addressing nondiscrimination protections to also prohibit local communities from regulating wages and workplace conditions.
The state legislature announced only last night that it would go into special session today and did not release the text of the bill until the session started this morning. Legislators spent just a few hours with the bill before rushing to vote it into law.
NCTE Executive Director Mara Keisling, who is at the State Legislative Building in Raleigh supporting local advocates, said, "It was disappointing and embarrassing to watch the North Carolina legislature recklessly pass this hurtful, unnecessary law that simply won't stand up in court. I'm very concerned for all of the trans people, especially trans kids, in North Carolina who are now going to be worried about being arrested or punished for simply using the restroom that matches the gender they live as every day. Essentially, this bill would make it illegal to be trans."
North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory now has 30 days to sign this bill into law. The state's Attorney General, Roy Cooper, has already come out against the bill, calling it "shameful."
From the Democratic National Committee:
WASHINGTON — Upon news that North Carolina Republican Governor Pat McCrory will sign a discriminatory anti-LGBT bill into law tonight, the Democratic National Committee has released the following statement.
When the Charlotte city council expanded protections for transgender people with a new ordinance last month, Republicans in the North Carolina state legislature were so disgusted that they announced they would take the unusual step of convening a special session today in order to block it.
But for one of the most extreme legislatures in the country, dragging one city backwards wasn't enough. Instead of destroying just one progressive ordinance in one city, the legislation they passed in today's special session blocks all LGBT non-discrimination ordinances passed by any local government across the entire state, and protects businesses that discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity. But they didn't stop there. State lawmakers took the opportunity to overreach even more by forbidding North Carolina cities from raising the minimum wage with living wage ordinances.
"This is sadly unsurprising from a party that seems determined to stay stuck in the Stone Age on LGBT equality. From their refusal to accept marriage equality as the law of the land, to their disingenuous 'free speech' and 'religious freedom' justifications for discrimination, Republicans are hurting Americans who deserve the full and equal protection of the law. Now the same state lawmakers who pretend to love limited government are steamrolling over local officials just because they had the courage to stand up for transgender rights. Our friends in the LGBT community deserve better and so do all the people of North Carolina," said DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
"While Republicans in DC refuse to do their job in confirming a Supreme Court justice, Republicans in North Carolina are calling a special session to repeal every local non-discrimination law protecting the LGBT community across the entire state. They'd rather spend the taxpayer's money to take away the rights of North Carolina's citizens than deal with the massive cuts to education they have also forced on families," said Earl Fowlkes, chair of the LGBT Caucus of the Democratic National Committee.
"What we're seeing here is a more extreme version of the radical 'Right to Discriminate' laws that have failed in other states like Indiana. Rather than requiring a 'religious objection' to discriminate, which is already bad enough, this wholesale repeal of all municipal non-discrimination laws in the entire state is a new low. This proposed bill gives businesses, like hotels and restaurants, a license to discriminate against gay and transgender people with total impunity. And that is simply wrong," said Ryan Butler, chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party's LGBT Caucus.
This follows recent actions in Republican controlled legislatures in Georgia, Kentucky, and Missouri to pass Indiana-style 'Right to Discriminate' laws that would permit businesses and others to discriminate against LGBT people.
From Faith in America
North Carolina, March 24, 2016 — Yet again, the religious right has hijacked religious narratives to justify their anti-LGBT bigotry. Ill-informed and misguided religious beliefs are being used against the transgender community in North Carolina.
"North Carolina revoked a basic human right for their transgender community — to use public restrooms," Eliel Cruz, Executive Director of Faith In America said. "Forcing transgender Americans to find the rare single person gender neutral bathrooms or hold it until they're home takes away their dignity. Waiting longer to use the restroom then when feels natural also can have serious health risks. All around, this piece of legislation is not only absurd but also dangerous."
Despite all the evidence to the contrary, North Carolina's Republicans bought and sold a "bathroom sexual predator" narrative that vilified the transgender community. This bathroom predator myth has been debunked again and again with not a single documented time it occurred. In reality, transgender people are more likely to be victims of crimes then the perpetrators.
Furthermore, this law affects more than the LGBT community. This legislation eliminates recourse from anyone fired from their job based on race, religion, age, or handicap.
"This is not about religious freedom as many have claimed. There is no Christian doctrine that requires binary gendered bathrooms as part of religious practices,'" Cruz said. "As a Christian, I'm ashamed that others are using their religious beliefs as a vehicle to legislate hate. North Carolina's bill is fueled by transphobia plain and simple."
From GLSEN
NEW YORK (March 24, 2016) — GLSEN Executive Director Dr. Eliza Byard expressed outrage over North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory's signing of HB 2 last night, which was passed by the North Carolina General Assembly in a special session yesterday. The sweepingly discriminatory law overrides local nondiscrimination ordinances statewide, including one recently passed in Charlotte, and prevents local labor laws from setting minimum wages, employee benefits and certain work conditions, making it the most extreme legislation of its kind in the country.
The bill also requires transgender and gender nonconforming students to use the restrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender assigned at birth, even if that conflicts with their gender identity. North Carolina is the first state to enact such a law after South Dakota's governor vetoed similar schools-related legislation earlier this month and Tennessee's House Education Committee halted the progress of a similar schools-related bill earlier this week.
"With last night's actions, Governor Pat McCrory and the North Carolina General Assembly have demonstrated that discriminating against some of their state's most vulnerable residents is among their top legislative priorities. Their actions strike a blow to the health and wellbeing of students and educators across the state. Transgender students now face the personal violence of being forced to use the wrong bathroom, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students are on notice that their elected officials have no interest in defending them against the discrimination they face daily. In that context, the Governor's references to 'etiquette' and 'decorum' are a cruel, perverse and ignorant joke.
With an education system that is woefully underfunded, segregated and lacking necessary resources, North Carolina's General Assembly and Governor are more concerned with wasting taxpayer dollars and demonizing transgender students than addressing the consistently worsening condition of North Carolina schools. Last year, three times as many educators left North Carolina to teach in other states than in 2010, and we expect that number will increase after this bill. We can only hope that the legal action, backlash from businesses and societal condemnation that Governor McCrory and North Carolina will now face bring justice to the North Carolina residents they have abandoned."
The latest edition of GLSEN's National School Climate Survey found that LGBT students who experienced discrimination and bullying and harassment at school were more than three times as likely to have missed school in the past month as those who did not, had lower GPAs than their peers, and had lower self-esteem and higher levels of depression. GLSEN has created model laws and policies for schools, districts and states to ensure LGBT students are safe and affirmed at school, including a model district policy for accommodating transgender and gender nonconforming students that complies with Title IX.
From GetEQUAL: Winston residents rally against HB2 in solidarity with trans neighbors following the passage of HB2, Winston-Salem residents call on city council to vote #NoConfidence in Governor McCrory
WINSTON-SALEM, NC — Following the rushed special session of the North Carolina General Assembly earlier this week that overturned a recently-passed non-discrimination ordinance in Charlotte, area residents are rallying against the bill and against its champion — Governor Pat McCrory — outside the Winston-Salem City Hall.
The bill is egregious in its scope — not only does it overturn Charlotte's local law, but it also overturns and pre-empts other local non-discrimination ordinances, local minimum wage laws, and local employment protections. In order to pass the bill, Governor McCrory called a special session of the General Assembly (at a cost of $42,000/day) in order to rush the measure through and sign it into law.
Rather than admitting defeat, local organizers from a wide variety of groups (including GetEQUAL NC, El Cambio, and others) are joining together this afternoon to call on the City Council to pass a resolution during Monday's business meeting that would register a vote of "no confidence" in Governor McCrory. In addition to attacking LGBTQ North Carolinians, the governor has also used his executive power to eviscerate constitutionally-protected voting rights, destroy natural resources (including drinking water), restrict action to abortion, privatize the education system, and severely constricting the ability for workers to organize. HB2 is just the latest of the governor's attack on North Carolinians across the state.
Founded in 2010, GetEQUAL is a national grassroots network whose mission is to empower the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community and our allies to take bold action to demand full legal and social equality, and to hold accountable those who stand in the way. For more information go to www.getequal.org . You can also follow GetEQUAL on Facebook at www.facebook.com/getequal or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/getequal .
