North Carolina rolls back ‘bathroom bill’ despite flak

Activists: Compromise measure still denies key protections to trans people

RALEIGH, N.C. - North Carolina rolled back its “bathroom bill” Thursday in a bid to end the yearlong backlash over transgender rights that has cost the state dearly in business projects, conventions and basketball tournaments.

The compromise plan, announced Wednesday night by the Democratic governor and leaders of the Republicancontrolled Legislature, was worked out under mounting pressure from the NCAA, which threatened to take away more sporting events from the basketball-obsessed state as long as the law, also known as House Bill 2, remained on the books.

The new measure cleared the House and Senate and was signed by Gov. Roy Cooper in a matter of hours.

Among other things, it repeals the best-known section of HB2: a requirement that transgender people use the public restrooms that correspond to the sex on their birth certificate.

“Today’s law immediately removes that restriction. It’s gone,” Cooper said.

The American Civil Liberties Union and gay and transgender activists complained that the new law still denies them certain protections from discrimination, and they demanded nothing less than full repeal.

As a result, it was unclear whether the retreat from HB2 would stop the boycotts or satisfy the NCAA, which had no immediate comment.

Republican Rep. Scott Stone, who lives in Charlotte, urged his colleagues to vote for the new bill. It passed the House 70-48.

“We are impeding the growth in our revenue, in our ability to do more things for tourism, for teacher pay, while we have this stigma hanging over,” Stone said. “The time has come for us to get out from under the national spotlight for negative things. You can’t go anywhere on this planet without somebody knowing what is HB2 and having some perception about it.”

Conservatives, meanwhile, staunchly defended HB2 and condemned the new measure.

“This bill is at best a punt. At worst it is a betrayal of principle,” Republican Sen. Dan Bishop, a primary sponsor of HB2, said on the Senate floor as the rollback was approved 32-16, with nine of 15 Democrats among the yes votes.

While the new measure eliminates the rule on transgender bathroom use, it also makes clear that state legislators — not local government or school officials — are in charge of policy on public restrooms.

HB2 had invalidated any local ordinances that protect gay or transgender people from discrimination in the workplace or in public accommodations. Under the new measure, local governments can’t enact any such protections until December 2020. That moratorium, according to GOP leaders, will allow time for pending federal litigation over transgender rights to play out.

“This is a significant compromise from all sides on an issue that has been discussed and discussed and discussed in North Carolina for a long period of time,” Senate leader Phil Berger said. “It is something I think satisfies some people, dissatisfies some people, but I think it’s a good thing for North Carolina.”

Gay rights activists blasted the proposal, saying it was not a true repeal.

“It doesn’t matter if you are a Democrat or a Republican — if you vote for this bill, you are not a friend of the LGBT community,” said Chris Sgro, executive director of Equality North Carolina. “You are not standing on the right side of the moral arc of history or with the civil rights community.”

James Esseks, director of the ACLU LGBT Project, said lawmakers “should be ashamed of this backroom deal.”

“This is not a repeal of HB2. Instead, they’re reinforcing the worst aspects of the law,” he said in a statement.

The governor said he would have preferred a bill that extended LGBT protections even further, but that wasn’t possible while the GOP holds veto-proof majorities in both legislative chambers.

“This is not a perfect deal, and this is not my preferred solution,” he said.

Cooper was elected in November on a platform that called for repeal of HB2, which was enacted under the man he defeated, Republican Gov. Pat McCrory.

The deal came together after the NCAA warned that North Carolina wouldn’t be considered for championship events from 2018 to 2022 unless HB2 was changed. The college sports governing body said it would start making decisions on host cities this week and announce them in April.

Republican House Speaker Tim Moore said he hadn’t spoken directly to the NCAA but had been told by business leaders who served as intermediaries that the bill should prove acceptable to the NCAA.