Deal could end North Carolina’s bathroom bill
North Carolina lawmakers today could repeal its bill requiring transgender people to use public bathrooms based on the sex listed on their birth certificates under a deal struck late Wednesday.
RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina lawmakers could repeal House Bill 2 on Thursday under a deal struck Wednesday night by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and Republican legislative leaders.
Senate leader Phil Berger announced the deal shortly after 10:30 p.m. The announcement capped a day of intensified negotiations and sometimes contentious meetings of lawmakers from both parties.
Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore took no questions. Details of the deal were to be released later.
They said the Senate will vote first, at 9:15 a.m. Thursday. The House will then vote.
The movement on HB2 comes ahead of a deadline Thursday from the NCAA to make changes to the controversial LGBT law or lose the ability to host sports championships through 2022.
Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue said Wednesday afternoon that he, Gov. Roy Cooper and Republican leaders had been negotiating “over the past 48 hours in a joint effort to find common ground and repeal House Bill 2.”
Leaked information appeared to reveal a compromise that would repeal HB2, prevent cities from regulating bathrooms and locker rooms while preventing local governments from adopting anti-discrimination ordinances for three years. Sources said House Republicans narrowly approved the compromise in a closed-door caucus, but in numbers that would require Democratic votes on the floor.
For some HB2 opponents, that is apparently too much. Rep. Cecil Brockman, one of two openly gay lawmakers, slammed the door in frustration when leaving a caucus meeting
“The rumored HB2 ‘deal’ does nothing more than double-down on discrimination and would ensure North Carolina remains the worst state in the nation for LGBTQ people,” HRC President Chad Griffin said in a statement. “The consequences of this hateful law will only continue without full repeal of HB2. Sellouts cave under pressure. Leaders fight for what’s right.”
HB2 bans cities, towns and counties from passing nondiscrimination ordinances. Berger indicated that the proposed changes to HB2 would allow local governments to enact ordinances but only with the protected classifications established in federal law. Those classifications don’t explicitly include sexual orientation or gender identity.
The proposal would repeal HB2 but would ban local governments, universities and school boards from setting bathroom access policies similar to the Charlotte nondiscrimination ordinance that prompted HB2.
It also includes a provision to “protect the rights of conscience,” which would allow lawsuits against the state for anyone who believes their constitutional rights are threatened by government action. That provision has drawn comparisons to Indiana’s controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act, but Moore rejects that description. Cooper says he’ll oppose any bill with a provision similar to RFRA.