HB2 remains largely untouched as North Carolina lawmakers adjourn
Despite efforts to have the anti-LGBT HB2 repealed or revised in North Carolina, lawmakers in the state have adjourned, having barely changed it.
Speaker Tim Moor on Friday said the only change lawmakers were likely to approve to the HB2, which caused massive controversy when it was passed this year, was to allow people to sue over workplace discrimination in state courts.
That change was made, but others have expressed concern that the state may lose the NBA All Star game in 2017, if the law is not repealed.
State Representative Chris Sgro, a Democrat, said on Friday: “It probably means that we’re going to have to come back for a special session because we’re going to lose the All-Star Game if we don’t.”
Some had hoped a vote would happen on whether to repeal the bill, but lawmakers never got a chance before they were adjourned.
On Friday the Human Rights Campaign said the change does not go far enough and that HB2 needs to be fully repealed.
The bill makes it illegal for trans people to use a gender appropriate bathroom in many public places.
It also rolled back local ordinances protecting LGBT people against discrimination and banned local authorities from re-introducing them.
Republicans in North Carolina earlier this week drafted another anti-LGBT law, despite the large-scale boycott of the state over its previous law just month ago.
The state lost a string of big investment ventures over Governor Pat McCrory’s decision to sign the contentious HB 2 – which voided all local ordinances protecting LGBT rights, banned transgender people from using their preferred bathroom, and permits businesses to discriminate against LGBT people on the grounds of religious belief.
McCrory continues to insist the anti-trans rules are “common sense”, but the state has faced a string of lawsuits, as LGBT groups believe HB 2 to be a clear violation of the US Constitution.
The prognosis is not good for North Carolina, with a judge demolishing a similar law in Mississippi this week on Constitutional grounds, but the state’s Republican leadership have shamefully drained money from other areas to put towards defending HB 2.
Read the PinkNews guide to HB2 here.
