Tag: North Carolina

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Only One State Won’t Issue Restraining Order In Cases Of Same-Sex Dating Abuse

(stock photo via Depositphotos)

In the entire United States, there’s only one state that doesn’t allow people in same-sex dating relationships to get a restraining order should the romance turn violent.

Anyone who becomes a victim of domestic violence can go to the police and file criminal charges in North Carolina.

But criminal cases can take time, and when there’s a greater sense of urgency, many opt for a restraining order – also known as a 50(B) protective order.

A restraining order can prohibit the alleged abuser from coming near the victim, force them to give up their guns or lose custody of their children.

Married people, straight or gay, can file for a restraining order. Divorced couples, as well as parents and children, have the legal option as well.

But in the Tar Heel state, when it comes to folks who are living together or just dating, the state law on restraining orders only applies to “persons of the opposite sex.”

According to the NewsObserver, the loophole became news after a Wake County woman attempted to get a protective order against her ex-girlfriend last May.

At the time, the judge denied her request. The woman filed again a month later, and was rebuffed again thanks to the language of the law.

Now, the state Attorney General, Josh Stein, is working through the courts to have the law overturned.

Stein, a Democrat, filed a legal brief earlier this week saying the law is unconstitutional because it singles out LGBTQ people and denies them equal protection and due process under the law.

Gov. Roy Cooper, also a Democrat, agrees and has asked to join Stein’s efforts.

Additionally, LGBTQ advocacy group Equality NC has also filed a brief in support of Stein’s efforts.

In their ‘friend of the court’ filing, Equality NC writes that since “the threat of intimate partner violence does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, neither should the State in protecting individuals from such violence.”

“Otherwise, there is no constitutionally guaranteed ‘equal dignity in the eyes of the law’ for same-sex relationships,” the brief continues.

Stein has support from the ACLU of North Carolina as well as the North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police.

The NewsObserver notes there are other legal options available to same-sex victims of abuse.

The woman who originally filed her request in May was eventually granted a 50(C) no-contact order. However, that kind of restraining order doesn’t give a judge the authority to revoke an alleged abuser’s right to own guns.

The woman’s primary concern for protection was predicated on threats of physical violence from her former girlfriend as well as her access to guns.

(h/t The NewsObserver)

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Anti-LGBTQ Law Costs North Carolina New $60 Million Netflix Series

North Carolina just can’t get its act together regarding anti-LGBTQ laws.

And now, according to StarNewsOnline, the state may have just lost $60 million in revenue thanks to the inaction of state lawmakers to repeal those laws.

Streaming giant, Netflix, was looking to shoot a new series, OBX, in the Tar Heel state but balked thanks to HB 142.

The law, enacted in 2017 was meant to be a ‘fix’ on previous legislation HB 2, which marginalized transgender people by requiring them to use public bathrooms that align with the gender on their birth certificates.

HB 142 partially repealed HB 2, but left in place bans on local communities passing their own anti-discrimination laws through 2020.

Ten episodes of the new project have been ordered by Netflix, and Jonas Pate, who created the show, wanted to shoot in his hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina. But the ban on local municipalities enacting their own legislation is a sticking point for Netflix.

“This tiny law is costing this town 70 good, clean, pension-paying jobs and also sending a message to those people who can bring these jobs and more that North Carolina still doesn’t get it,” Pate said.

Pate added that the production is projected to spend in the neighborhood of $60 million in whatever state the series shoots.

Pate, and his brother Josh, have previously created the NBC series Surface, which was shot in Wilmington.

But this past weekend, Pate found himself scouting sections of Charleston, South Carolina, for the new production.

Freshman state Sen. Harper Peterson, a Democrat from Hanover, hopes to see the issue addressed this week as the state Assembly is in session.

“That is a decision the legislature has to make and realize that it is one more opportunity we are losing if we don’t,” Peterson told StarNewsOnline. “We have to get back and be competitive with other states. It just hurts to see a production about North Carolina go to South Carolina.”

OBX is described as a coming-of-age story that follows four teens in the Outer Banks whose lives are changed when a hurricane cuts off all power to the islands.

“When these lifelines for teens like phones and Snapchat are gone, it really reorients the generational divisions,” says Pate.

(h/t StarNewsOnline)

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North Carolina: Two Women Arrested For Sex Assault On Trans Woman In Public Restroom

Jessica Leann Fowler and Amber Nicole Harrell

Two women have been charged with misdemeanor sexual battery and felony second-degree kidnapping after violently attacking a transgender woman in the ladies room of a downtown Raleigh bar.

According to the NewsObserver, Amber Nicole Harrell, 38, and Jessica Leann Fowler, 31, struck up what began as a ‘friendly conversation’ with the victim at Milk Bar on December 9.

But the women reportedly became violent and grabbed the trans woman’s genitals asking if she had a penis.

The assault was reported the next day by a friend of the victim who called 911.

A recording of the call, made public by the Raleigh Police Department, shows the two women started laughing as they pulled up the victim’s shirt in an attempt to see her breasts. They also grabbed the victim’s buttocks repeatedly as the victim told them to stop.

The assault continued after the three left the ladies room as the women openly groped the victim’s stomach and buttocks.

The bartender eventually told Fowler and Harrell to stop.

Harrell turned herself in to the police over the weekend and was released on $50,000 bail Monday morning.

Fowler turned herself in on Tuesday and is being held in the Wake County jail under a $30,000 bond.

In 2016, state lawmakers passed HB2, an anti-LGBTQ law which prohibited transgender people from using public bathrooms which aligned with their gender identity unless they had changed the gender listed on their birth certificate.

The law was repealed a year later but replaced with HB142, which still did not ensure trans people would have access to public restrooms. Additionally, the new law left prohibitions in place that bans any local communities from passing their own non-discrimination ordinances.

(h/t NewsObserver)

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News Round-Up: December 31, 2018

Said goodbye to 2018 with some dance time…

Some news items you might have missed:

• It’s the last dance for 2018! Hope you all get your Auld Lang Syne on!

• Former NSYNC boy-bander Lance Bass says he and hubby Michael Turchin are hoping to become parents in 2019.

• House Democrats say they won’t seat homophobic North Carolina Republican Mark Harris in the new Congress in light of possible election fraud allegations until a full investigation is completed.

• If you’re an Instagrammer, click here to get your #2018BestNine. Here’s mine and I’d pretty much agree. Tons of fun with hot hubby Michael, some Rome, some Mexico, some time alone. And meeting the luminous Angela Bassett was the fan-boy moment of the year 😉

• In an interview with The LA Times, outgoing White House Chief of Staff John Kelly says inside the West Wing, Donald Trump’s infamous ‘wall’ will not be a ‘wall.’ The idea of a solid concrete wall went out the window over a year ago, according to Kelly.

• For the first time ever, Nickelodeon’s ‘Double Dare’ featured a family with two dads.

• The US stock market has officially logged its worse year since 2008 when the Great Recession began. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ends the year down 5.6%, and the S&P 500 lost 6.2%. #SoMuchWinning

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North Carolina Governor Issues Executive Order Prohibiting LGBT Discrimination By State Agencies

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper has signed an executive order that prohibits any state agency, or contractors who do business with the state, to discriminate against LGBTs.

The executive order adds sexual orientation and gender identity to the state’s list of protected classes at least in terms of state agencies or those who do business with the state.

Cooper told the media, “By requiring companies that contract with the state to have non-discrimination policies, the state can promote protections for more North Carolinians outside of state government.”

Cooper is also proposing a settlement in the lawsuit challenging House Bill 2 and House Bill 142, the so-called bathroom bill and it’s repeal legislation.

The proposal would allow transgender citizens use of public restrooms and other facilities that match their gender identity.

A federal judge still has to sign off on that settlement.

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News Round-Up: June 2, 2017

Tyson Beckford and the Chippendales (click to enlarge)

Some news items you may have missed:

• That time you’re at the Planet Hollywood pool in Las Vegas and notice Tyson Beckford and the Chippendales just hanging… #HappyFriday

• In this sneak peek from MTV’s The Challenge: Champs vs. Pros, Olympian Gus Kenworthy gets emotional recalling lying about his sexuality while being a professional skier.

• President Trump has no time to honor Pride Month, what with being so busy proclaiming June “National Ocean Month” and “National Homeowner Month.” As such, Ivanka Trump got a whole lotta backlash when she tweeted a bubbly message about how she “celebrates” and “honors” the LGBTQ community.

• Chilean President Michelle Bachelet plans to send a bill to Congress later this year that will legalize same-sex marriage in her country. South America currently celebrates marriage equality in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Uruguay.

• MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough says his sources point to White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon as the “leaker” inside the Trump administration.

• A North Carolina minister is accused of kidnapping and assaulting a gay parishioner. The 23 year-old victim says he was slapped, punched, choked and screamed at for two hours in an effort to exorcise his “homosexual demons.”

• The film adaptation of Wonder Woman opens nationwide today boasting a rating of 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing, putting it ahead of popular super hero movies “The Avengers” (92 percent), “Guardians of the Galaxy” (91 percent), and tying “Iron Man” (94 percent). Watch the trailer below.

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North Carolina: Gov. Roy Cooper Plans Executive Order Addressing LGBT Protections

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who received much criticism for supporting the fake “repeal” of his state’s anti-LGBT law HB2, announced yesterday that he plans to issue an executive order addressing protections for the LGBT community.

The Democratic governor made the remark to a sympathetic audience in Washington, D.C., where he said he would also continue to fight against discrimination and push for voting rights and education funding.

In a question-and-answer segment with the organization’s executive vice president for policy, Carmel Martin, Cooper explained his decision to accept a compromise repeal of HB2 even though it left him at odds with some activists and members of his own party.

“My goal is statewide LGBT protections in North Carolina, and I’m going to keep fighting every day until I get to that point,” he said, to applause. “… It would have been politically and probably emotionally easier for me to keep pounding the table and not accept a compromise but I knew it wasn’t right.”

Cooper did not elaborate on the executive order on LGBT protections, which would only apply to the departments that the governor controls. Asked about it in a later phone interview, Cooper said he had promised to do more.

“I said when we repealed HB2 and initiated the compromise, we needed to take additional steps to make sure we protect LGBT residents,” he said. “We’re working on an executive order that will help further those goals.”

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News Round-Up: April 12, 2017

Some news items you may have missed:

• Fitness model/hottie Nick Sandell (above) is looking forward to Friday, too. Happy Hump Day!

• The wife of Omar Mateen, the shooter in the Pulse Nightclub massacre, has pled not guilty to aiding and abetting her husband in the deadly attack. The judge set a trial date of June 5th – one week before the 1st anniversary of the mass shooting.

• North Carolina Speaker of the House Tim Moore says he won’t bring the recently filed legislation to ignore the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage up for a vote.

• Lisa Kudrow is set to join the cast of “Grace & Frankie!”

• A new medical study suggests poppers, inhalants used by gay men during sex, could cause central vision problems.

• Is Steve Bannon on the way out of the White House? President Trump begins a sentence with, “I like Steve, but…”

• Shortly after Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Washington Post adopted a new slogan – “Democracy dies in darkness.” Today, journalist Michael Wolff told White House counselor Kellyanne Conway that “when they say ‘democracy dies in darkness,’ you’re the darkness.” She wasn’t too appreciative of the sentiment. Watch below.

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North Carolina GOP Lawmakers File Bill Declaring SCOTUS Ruling On Marriage Equality “Null And Void”

Click image to enlarge

The Republican-led General Assembly of North Carolina just filed House Bill 780 declaring that the U.S. Supreme Court ruling which made marriage equality the law of the land is “null and void in the state of North Carolina.”

From the bill:

The General Assembly of the State of North Carolina declares that the Obergefell v. Hodges decision of the United States Supreme Court of 2015 is null and void in the State of North Carolina, and that the State of North Carolina shall henceforth uphold and enforce Section 6 of Article XIV of the North Carolina Constitution, the opinion and objection of the United States Supreme Court notwithstanding.

Good luck with that one, North Carolina.

#WillNeverBecomeLaw

I wonder how “welcoming” and “inclusive” the NCAA will view North Carolina now…?

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NCAA “Reluctantly” Lifts Boycott Of Championship Games In North Carolina After Fake Repeal Of HB2

The NCAA Board of Governors has “reluctantly” voted that North Carolina’s fake repeal of anti-LGBT law HB2 is enough to lift the boycott of any championship games in the state.

Via press release:

In August of 2016, the NCAA Board of Governors instructed the relocation of NCAA championships scheduled in North Carolina during the 2016-17 academic year because of the cumulative impact HB2 had on local communities’ ability to ensure a safe, healthy, discrimination-free atmosphere for all those watching and participating in our events.

Last week, the elected officials of North Carolina enacted compromise legislation that repealed HB2 and replaced it with a new law, HB142, that addressed a number of the concerns that led to the relocation of the NCAA championships. As with most compromises, this new law is far from perfect.

The NCAA did not lobby for any specific change in the law. The Board of Governors, however, was hopeful that the state would fully repeal HB2 in order to allow the host communities to ensure a safe, healthy, discrimination-free atmosphere for the championship sites. While the new law meets the minimal NCAA requirements, the board remains concerned that some may perceive North Carolina’s moratorium against affording opportunities for communities to extend basic civil rights as a signal that discriminatory behavior is permitted and acceptable, which is inconsistent with the NCAA Bylaws.

[snip]

In the end, a majority on the NCAA Board of Governors reluctantly voted to allow consideration of championship bids in North Carolina by our committees that are presently meeting. The NCAA championships previously awarded to North Carolina for 2017-18 will remain in the state. The board, however, directs that any site awarded a championship event in North Carolina or elsewhere be required to submit additional documentation demonstrating how student-athletes and fans will be protected from discrimination.

It’s worth noting that for some unfathomable reason (other than LGBT animus), the newly passed HB142 blocks cities/townships/local municipalities from passing any protections for LGBTQ people until 2020. For what good reason is this clause included in the legislation?

And even after that period passes, local governments will still be blocked from guaranteeing trans people are able to safely use bathrooms that align with their gender identity.

How this isn’t seen as the definition of LGBTQ discrimination escapes me.

The Human Rights Campaign and Equality NC respond:

“The NCAA’s decision to backtrack on their vow to protect LGBTQ players, employees and fans is deeply disappointing and puts people at risk,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “After drawing a line in the sand and calling for repeal of HB2, the NCAA simply let North Carolina lawmakers off the hook.”

“It is disappointing to see the NCAA backpedal after it stood strong against the deeply discriminatory HB2,” said Equality NC Executive Director Chris Sgro. “HB142 continues the same discriminatory scheme put forward by HB2 and does little to protect the NCAA’s players, employees, and fans. The NCAA’s decision has put a seal of approval on state-sanctioned discrimination.”