North Carolina Fails to Repeal HB2 Anti-Trans ‘Bathroom Bill’

After calling a one-day special session, the Republican-controlled North Carolina legislature failed to repeal a bill that blocks protections for members of the LGBTQ community, specifically people who identify as transgender. That’s what led state legislators to hold a special session to consider repealing HB2, the controversial state law that, among other things, requires people to use the bathroom corresponding to the sex listed on their birth certificate.

Republicans are upset because the full text of the resolution repealing Charlotte’s non-discrimination ordinance shows the city did not strike the law in its entirety-just the portions affected by HB2 concerning bathroom access according to gender identity.

While Democratic Gov. -elect Roy Cooper isn’t in a position to directly confront the hyper partisanship of the General Assembly, only those North Carolinians with short memories could conclude that the passivity and acquiescence to the legislative leadership displayed by outgoing Republican Gov.

Major companies lined up against it. The NCAA already moved basketball tournament games from the state, while the ACC moved its football championship and the NBA took the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte, among other sports actions.

“As promised, I called a Special Session to reconsider a manufactured political issue that strategically targeted the city of Charlotte and our state by well-funded left-wing interest groups”, McCrory said in a statement.

He said people want to see government work together for the good of the state, and that HB2 would be repealed in the future because “this is not the kind of state we are”.

Republican Governor Pat McCrory narrowly lost a re-election bid in November, with many viewing the vote as a referendum on the law.

The Charlotte City Council met Monday to repeal the ordinance enacted in early 2016.

It was enacted largely in response to a local measure in Charlotte that protected the rights of transgender people to use public bathrooms of their choice.

He says he was disappointed by the negative comments directed at Charlotte by Senators from his own party.

“The worst part of this is that we’re worse off now than we were when we arrived”, he said.

Cooper denies this, and claims that Republicans were responsible for the repeal failure.

North Carolina’s largest city has a long history of strained relations with lawmakers in Raleigh.

But in the state House of Representatives, some Republicans protested the session being called at all, saying they would vote against any measure proposed.

“After a nine hour special session meant to finally repeal the controversial, discriminatory and extremely shitty” bathroom bill”, North Carolina legislators failed in their task to repeal the stupid thing once and for all. In a statement, ACLU LGBT & HIV Project director James Esseks said “it is a shame that North Carolina’s General Assembly is refusing to clean up the mess they made”.

Republicans used the fact that Charlotte had not repealed the entire ordinance the first time around as a reason to add the moratorium to its HB2 repeal bill.

“I think they got what they wanted, and I’ll never ever trust them again”, City Council member Claire Fallon said.