North Carolina lawmakers passed a bill to repeal the controversial House Bill 2 March 30, 2017 after much debate. Although Governor Roy Cooper made many claims of a full repeal of the bill while running for governor, the compromise that was passed has made the LGBTQ community and many others insulted and angry.
“This is not a repeal of HB 2. Instead, they’re reinforcing the worst aspects of the law, North Carolina lawmakers should be ashamed of this backroom deal that continues to play politics with the lives of LGBT North Carolinians,” said James Esseks, director of the ACLU LGBT Project.
When the bill was passed in March 2016 under the leadership of former governor Pat McCrory, there was massive backlash across the whole country. The bill states that everyone in North Carolina must use the bathroom for the gender that is on their birth certificates, but this left many people who identify as transgender or gender-fluid without a place to go. Many performers cancelled their shows in North Carolina as a way of protest, including Bruce Springsteen, Mumford & Sons and Demi Lovato. Many Athens students had already bought tickets to these shows and were devastated when they found out.
“I understand wanting to show your disagreement with the bill, but not all of us agree with it either, and we don’t deserve to be punished too,” said Jane Adams, junior.
Other big organizations that pulled out of North Carolina were the NBA and NCAA. The NBA moved their 2017 All Star game from Charlotte, and the NCAA banned any championship games to be played in North Carolina until 2022 unless changes to the bill were made. An analysis from the Associated Press found that HB2 would cost the state more than $3.76 billion in lost business over a dozen years. Many have argued that the compromises made to the bill and the failure of a full repeal was the lawmakers way of pleasing the NCAA, instead of pleasing the people of North Carolina. In response to the appeal, the NCAA is now allowing North Carolina to host tournament games in 2018, 2020 and 2021.
“This so-called ‘deal’ is politics at its worst and was only made as the state faced losing key NCAA events and further economic damage. Any human being, regardless of who they are, should always come before a basketball game — but apparently the North Carolina state government still doesn’t understand that concept,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
The compromise bill put in several provisions, including leaving state legislators in charge of policy over multi-stall bathrooms and putting a pause on local governments passing nondiscrimination ordinances until 2020. Lawmakers say this would allow time for ongoing court cases on transgender issues to play out. With many angered at Governor Cooper, he has released statements stating that this is the best he could do considering the republican-led legislature.
“In a perfect world with a good General Assembly, we would have repealed House Bill 2 fully today and added full statewide protections for LGBT North Carolinians. But this is an important goal that I will keep fighting for,” said Cooper.
