N.C. future uncertain after ‘bathroom bill’ reset

Leaders hope state’s reputation restored; many have doubts.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Tense negotiations over a deal to undo North Carolina’s “bathroom bill” gave way Friday to uncertainty.

Will the compromise Gov. Roy Cooper signed Thursday quash the furor that made businesses, sporting events, conventions and entertainers pull out of the state in a yearlong economic backlash?

State Democratic and Republican leaders say their compromise will restore North Carolina’s reputation as a welcoming place to do business, and some business leaders applauded the deal. Others were doubtful. Some entertainment industry leaders were scornful, and LGBT advocates expressed outrage.

House Bill 142, titled “AN ACT TO RESET” the law created by House Bill 2, is not, critics say, a true repeal.

Reached through backroom deal-making, it still exposes gay and transgender people to discrimination whenever they go to a hotel, restaurant, locker room or bathroom, rights advocates say.

“I don’t know why any of these people thought they could use the exact secret process and incompetence that got them into this problem to get them out of this problem,” Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said in an interview Friday. She complained that transgender people were left out of the negotiations.

HB142 has now eliminated HB2’s requirement that transgender people use restrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificates in many public buildings. But the new law also makes clear that only state legislators — not local government or school officials — can make rules for public restrooms from now on.

HB2 also invalidated any local ordinances protecting gay or transgender people from discrimination in the workplace or in public accommodations. HB142 prohibits local governments from enacting any new such protections until December 2020.

The ACLU said it’s continuing its legal battle on behalf of transgender residents.

“Many of the provisions of HB142 carry forward problematic portions of HB2,” the group’s North Carolina legal director Chris Brook said. He said provisions such as the moratorium on local anti-discrimination ordinances “mirror provisions we’ve already sued over.”

The stakes are high. An Associated Press analysis this week found that House Bill 2 would cost the state more than $3.76 billion in lost business over a dozen years. The tally was based on companies and events that already backed out, meaning that money won’t likely return even with the 2016 law gone.

The response to the “reset” from business leaders was mixed, despite an optimistic tone struck by Cooper.

“Companies that I have talked to, companies that I have recruited, who were hesitant or refusing to bring businesses to our state before the passage of today’s bill now are telling me: We are coming,” the governor said after signing the bill.

The North Carolina Chamber of Commerce thanked Cooper and Republican legislative leaders “for coming together on a bipartisan basis to find a solution.”

Bank of America, the largest North Carolina-based company, said in a news release: “We support this bipartisan measure to repeal HB2 and create the conditions for continued dialogue and progress.”

But some companies responded negatively, such as the Durham-based advertising agency McKinney.

“As a national agency with a global creative reputation, our success depends upon attracting the very best talent and clients to Durham. This new bill continues to stand in the way of that,” McKinney CEO Brad Brinegar said.

IBM, which has a large Raleigh-area operation, also expressed reservations.

“IBM opposed North Carolina’s H.B.2 because it discriminates against people for being who they are. We welcome its repeal, but stronger local nondiscrimination laws should not be pre-empted,” said the company’s chief diversity officer, Lindsay-Rae McIntyre.