BREAKING: North Carolina Legislature Passes Bill To Allow LGBT Discrimination, Will Be Most Dangerous Anti-LGBTQ Law In America:
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House Bill 2 would override local LGBT nondiscrimination ordinances in the state and ban transgender people from certain restrooms.
It was designed to negate a law in Charlotte to protect LGBT people from discrimination in housing and public accommodations.
Lawmakers in the House voted 83-25 Wednesday to pass the bill.
The Senate committee approved the bill in a 32-0 vote after Democrats walked out.
The bill now goes to Gov. Pat McCrory for his signature.
Republican leaders of the North Carolina General Assembly on Wednesday rushed through a bill that would repeal all local LGBT nondiscrimination ordinances in the state and ban transgender people from certain restrooms.
Introduced and passed within 10 hours, the bill now goes to Gov. Pat McCrory desk. His spokesman, John Ellis, told BuzzFeed News that he plans to sign the bill Wednesday night.
The House voted 83-25 in the afternoon, and the Senate voted 32-0 Wednesday evening — a unanimous vote only because every Democratic senator walked out.
Republicans had unveiled the legislation Wednesday morning, arguing the measure was needed to protect women and portraying transgender people as sex predators.
They were attempting to nix an ordinance in Charlotte — which had been scheduled to take effect April 1 — that would protect LGBT people from discrimination in housing and public accommodations.
Critics claimed the public accommodations portion of the city ordinance would create a safety risk because it allows transgender women, who they called “men,” to prey on women and girls.
John Rustin, president of the North Carolina Family Policy Council, told senators the Charlotte ordinance “means men could enter women restrooms and locker rooms — placing the privacy, safety, and dignity of women and the elderly at great risk.”
House Bill 2 mandates that state law supersede all local ordinances concerning wages, employment, and public accommodations.
The state’s preemption bill, however, would do more than stymie Charlotte’s law.
House Bill 2 mandates that state law supersedes all local ordinances concerning wages, employment, and public accommodations. It would also restrict single-sex public restrooms and locker rooms in publicly run facilities to people of the same sex on their birth certificate.
It would also ban transgender students from school restrooms that correspond with their gender identity — teeing up a potential legal clash with the federal government, which has found civil rights laws ban transgender discrimination in schools.
Nine other jurisdictions in the state have ordinances similar to Charlotte’s.
Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, who could veto the bill, previously said the Charlotte City Council overreached with its LGBT ordinance. But his office has not responded to BuzzFeed News’ request to comment on the specifics of HB 2.
Democrats and some businesses decried the bill as discriminatory on Wednesday.
Dow Chemical announced its opposition during a floor debate in the House:
As did the state’s attorney general, Roy Cooper, who called the bill “shameful.”
“That North Carolina is making discrimination part of the law is shameful,” said Cooper. “It will not only cause real harm to families, but to our economy as well.”
Democratic lawmakers had not been given a chance to read the bill Wednesday morning, introduced just an hour before its first committee vote. Democratic Rep. Bobby Richardson asked for five minutes to examine the bill before a hearing in the the House Judiciary IV Committee.
“I’m not really sure what is in this bill,” she said.
In testimony before the committee, Christian conservatives said they were furious that Charlotte’s nondiscrimination ordinance would allow transgender women to use women’s restrooms, which they contend allows “men” to sexually prey on girls.
The specter of “men in women’s bathrooms” has been a common refrain among opponents of LGBT rights around the country.
Echoing those talking points, leaders of the House and Senate called the special session on Monday.
Lt. Governor Dan Forest and House Speaker Tim Moore, both Republicans, said in a statement they would address “a radical Charlotte City Council ordinance allowing men to share public bathrooms and locker rooms with young girls and women.”
However, there are no known instances in 17 states and 225 cities with laws banning LGBT discrimination of the policies being used to promote or defend predatory behavior in bathrooms or locker rooms.
“Repeating a lie over and over does not make it true,” said Reverend Mykal Slack, taking on the anti-transgender bathroom message.
“I am a transgender male, and I am not a threat to you,” he continued. “I go to work every day and go to church ever Sunday.”
But LGBT groups have been reticent to directly rebut the bathroom messages in Charlotte or before Wednesday’s legislative session, instead focusing on the broad protections of the city law for LGBT people. That strategy appears to recreate the same dynamics that led voters to repeal Houston’s LGBT ordinance last fall.
In contrast, transgender women have a well documented history of being the targets of hate-motivated assault and homicide. Alex McNeill, a transgender man who lives in North Carolina, told reporters on a phone call Tuesday, “A female friend of mine was punched in face exiting the women restroom by someone who thought she had been in the wrong bathroom.”
Trans women experience a greater risk of homicide than LGBT people as a whole, according to a June 2015 report by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. The report found hate-motivated violence against transgender people rose 13% in 2014 compared with the year before.
The Charlotte ordinance would ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression in housing and places of public accommodation.
“If the state wanted to, they could come here to the government center, fire all of us, send us home, and run the city themselves,” said a member of the Charlotte City Council.
Charlotte City Councilmember John Autry supported the city’s measure, telling BuzzFeed News in February that it protects vulnerable citizens from discrimination. But if the state tried to override the city, he said, “We have no legal leg to contest it with.”
North Carolina law empowers the state with strong control over local jurisdictions, allowing it to “preempt our authority,” Autry said. “If the state wanted to, they could come here to the government center, fire all of us, send us home, and run the city themselves.”
In 2015, Arkansas lawmakers passed a law preventing cities from passing laws that protect classes of people not already named in state law. The same year in North Carolina, Republicans tried to pass a similar law but were thwarted by Democrats.
Under President Obama, federal agencies have interpreted Title IX of the Education Act of 1972 — which bans discrimination in publicly funded schools on the basis of sex — to also ban transgender discrimination as a form of sex discrimination.
Two bills that would ban transgender students from using certain school restrooms died in South Dakota and Tennessee this month after concerns rose about federal litigation and loss of federal education funding,
No state has passed a law banning transgender students from school restrooms that correspond with their gender identity.
Read the bill as it was introduced:
NEW: North Carolina governor signs bill repealing local LGBT ordinances and banning trans people from some bathrooms, making it the Anti-LGBTQ law most dangerous in the country.
JUST IN: The @ACLU and @LambdaLegal are exploring legal challenges to North Carolina’s anti-LGBT law:
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.
“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.
“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.”
“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: lambdalegal.org/help or call toll-free: 1-866-542-8336
To reach the ACLU of North Carolina for legal help, visit http://acluofnc.org/Ask-for-Help/get-legal-help.html, email . The National ACLU help line is 212-549-2627
These are the 11 Democrats who voted for anti-LGBT bill in North Carolina House. No Dems voted for it in Senate.