Current Affairs

City of Charlotte refuses to axe LGBT rights protections for North Carolina ‘compromise’

Sep 20 2016
Written by Nick Duffy

The city of Charlotte, North Carolina has snubbed a “compromise” plan that would see the state repeal its anti-LGBT law as long as the city stripped anti-discrimination protections.

North Carolina has 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 has continued to insist the rules are “common sense”, but a string of major employers are boycotting the state over the attack on the rights of their LGBT employees.

But facing a possible election defeat to a pro-LGBT Democrat in November, McCrory has struggled to try and reach a “compromise” on the issue, after revelations about the insane amount of taxpayers’ money he has wasted on the project.

The Governor has agreed to call it quits on the whole fiasco and repeal HB 2 as part of a compromise deal, as long as Charlotte City Council repeals a LGBT anti-discrimination ordinance.

However, the city has flatly rejected any such ‘deal’, signalling that LGBT rights are not up for negotiation or ‘compromise’.

Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts said Monday: “Some people don’t realize there’s no legal reason for Charlotte to do anything, and that’s the point we want to make clear to the community.”

At a council meeting on Monday, she refused to put the issue on the agenda.

The state’s Republican leadership has now tried to turn the tables on the city council.

He whinged: “Despite offering a very reasonable solution and compromise for North Carolina, it’s obvious that D.C. special interest political pressures on elected Charlotte city officials – and even our own attorney general – again derailed common sense.”

But a spokesperson for his Democratic opponent Roy Cooper slammed the “laughable” suggestion that a city council was now to blame for the crisis that McCrory created because they refused to barter away LGBT rights protections.

The spokesperson told the Charlotte Observer: “Unfortunately, Gov. McCrory just doesn’t seem to want to fix this.

“The governor needs to stop playing politics with our economy and call a special session to end this now by repealing HB2.”