Tag: HB2

As predicted, a federal lawsuit has been filed in North Carolina regarding the state’s new sweeping anti-LGBT law, H.B. 2, which wiped out local municipalities ability to protect LGBT citizens from discrimination, and specifies that transgender students must use public bathrooms that correspond to their “biological” sex versus their gender identity.

Calling out the Fourteenth Amendment, the lawsuit alleges the legislation was enacted to single out LGBTs.

From Buzzfeed:

“By singling out LGBT people for disfavored treatment and explicitly writing discrimination against transgender people into state law, H.B. 2 violates the most basic guarantees of equal treatment and the U.S. Constitution,” the lawsuit argues.

The complaint argues the law violates people’s equal protection, privacy, and liberty rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and their civil rights under Title IX of the Education Act of 1972.

The lawsuit is asking for a declaratory judgment that the law violates the Constitution and Title IX and an injunction against enforcement of the law.

The case was filed overnight in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina on behalf of Joaquín Carcaño, a transgender man who works at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Payton Grey McGarry, a transgender man who is a student at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro; and Angela Gilmore, a lesbian who is the associate dean for academic affairs at North Carolina Central University. Also named as plaintiffs are the ACLU of North Carolina and Equality North Carolina.

The defendants include Gov. Pat McCrory, Attorney General Roy Cooper, and the University of North Carolina and several of its senior officials.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory is trying desperately to crawl out of this huge mess of the newly passed HB2 law which strips any LGBT protections from local municipalities and forces transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms which don’t correspond to their gender identity.

McCrory has issued this list of “Myths Vs Facts” about HB2, but there’s a whole lot of side-stepping going on here:

Now, let’s breakdown the “spin” from the truth here:

• McCrory completely sidesteps the fact that transgender students cannot use restrooms or locker rooms that match their gender identity.

• Saying businesses can still adopt their own non-discrimination policies ignores the fact that those businesses were never the problem. It’s the businesses that DO discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity that needed to be policed.

• Saying transgender people can use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity as long as they’ve undergone sex reassignment surgery and change their birth certificates is highly unreasonable. Many trans people haven’t undergone such surgery, and often because they can’t afford to do so.

• Item #5 would seem to indicate that local municipalities can enact their own stricter anti-discrimination policies. EXCEPT – there can be no such policies regarding any group not protected by state law. LGBTs are not protected by state law, so there can be no local protections either.

What HB2 has done is wipe out the local ordinances passed in 8 cities in North Carolina that chose to protect it’s LGBT citizens just like over 200 cities and 19 states across the country had done.

The state legislature of North Carolina has legalized discrimination against LGBTs. Period.

As I’ve explained before here on The Randy Report, here’s an example of how this new law will work. This transgender man will now be required to use the ladies room.  Let me know how this makes any sense…

(h/t JMG)